Two Worlds Cross
by Canadian Aspiring Author
Summary: When Gray goes out on a seemingly plain mission, things go very wrong and he meets a stranger. As it turns out, worlds are crossing into each other and people are crossing over. What will happen when Elrics and co meet Fairy Tail? And who is this mysterious girl who saved Gray's life? What secrets does she hold and is she a friend or foe?
1. Chapter 1

Two worlds cross

Chapter 1

Gray was starting to regret his decision.

He trudged through the hot desert, constantly fashioning ice to keep him cool. He was an Ice Mage, in the middle of the desert, that was supposed to be looking for a Fire Mage.

Nervously, he fingered the silver cross on his necklace, pulling out the job request from his back pocket.

**HELP NEEDED! **

**Young Fire Mage Needs to be captured for questioning**

**Has been terrorizing trade route for weeks**

**10,000 J Reward.**

Gray thought about when the job and made its first appearance. The reward hadn't been half as much and no one had really taken it seriously. But the reward kept climbing, until it had peaked everyone's interest yesterday. For some strange reason, Gray had felt compelled to take it.

Natsu had fought him for a good half hour before Lucy and Erza intervened. Lucy had promised a better job, while Erza had promised a few broken ribs if they didn't stop. Juvia had even offered to come, but he had refused. He felt that he needed to take this job on alone.

Now, he realized that maybe it hadn't been the best idea to go alone.

Now that he thought about it, maybe the reason that the reward had escalated was because they had had trouble taking this guy in. Obviously this job had been sent to more than one guild, otherwise the reward wouldn't be so high. And the fact that he had been terrorizing a well-travelled trade route for weeks? They had even had to shut down the route for fear of robbery or injury. Things were staring to get serious.

Unfortunately, if this was a real Fire Mage, then he would be used to the heat. Gray on the other hand, was at a disadvantage. His ice was melting fast, and it was using up plenty of power just to keep himself from passing out from the heat. Heck, he was used to flames, but desert heat was another thing altogether.

Also, he wouldn't be able to do a sneak-attack. There was nothing around for two miles or so except sand and sun. He was out in the open. So, his best strategy was to travel the route, hoping that he could catch the guy's attention. From there he'd have to fight him. Then, he could go and collect his reward, go home, and have a nice cold drink back at the guild.

He was just putting the reward back in his back pocket when there was a sudden streak of red flames and an explosion just off to his left.

The force knocked him off of his feet, and he suddenly realized that somewhere along the way, he had taken off his shirt and pants, leaving him in his underwear.

_Great, _he thought bitterly. _I_'_m fighting a Fire Mage with no clothes on. Even more skin that can be easily burned._

Quickly, he got back to his feet, standing ready to Make something. The explosion had stirred up the sand, making it hard to see and hard to breathe.

Suddenly, Gray heard a noise off to his right. Whipping around, he bellowed "Ice Geyser!" and pillars of ice appeared one after the other, growing faster than thought.

Unfortunately, he had only managed to stir up the sand even more. He was really starting to wish that he had at least brought Max along, their Sand Mage. At least he could move the sand to their advantage.

_Well, it_'_s not like he can see any better, right?_

As if just to prove him wrong, another streak of red streamed towards him. Gray barely managed to get out of the way, but not before the flames had singed his left side, burning him badly.

He cried out in pain, gritting his teeth. He fell to his knees, squinting through his eyelashes, trying to make out anything.

This guy used his magic so weirdly. He had never seen anything like it. Yeah, he had had his share of fights with Fire Mages (excluding Natsu), but this was like nothing he had seen before. A streak of red light, then an explosion? It almost was like Fire Dragon's Roar, but smaller and with less destruction.

Breathing heavily, Gray urged himself to look at the burn. It was along the left side of his body, about the size of a dinner plate. It was bleeding a little bit, which probably wasn't good, but the heat just made it worse.

Then, he realized that someone was standing over him. His head snapped up, glaring daggers at the man in front of him.

He had black hair and squinted onyx eyes, much like Natsu's, except smaller. He was tall and probably in his twenties. He wore strange blue pants that had a gold chain hanging out of the left pocket. He had on a white t-shirt and a blue shirt as an improvised visor. Gray could see the glimmer of medals. A military man, but the uniform unrecognizable from any military that Gray knew of. But his accessories were weirdest. He had on black combat boots and wore white gloves with a red magic circle on the back of them. Gray couldn't see it properly because of all of the sand still swirling, but it was unlike any circle he had seen. The man obviously wasn't prepared for the desert.

He stood over him with perfect posture, one hand at his side, the other outstretched, his fingers together like he was ready to snap them. He looked grim and determined, but also a little afraid. Gray could tell just by looking into his eyes that this man had seen war.

"Will you just leave me alone?" He barked suddenly, as if he were giving orders. "I just want someone to explain to me what's going on and where I am. Do you know how to get to Amestris from here?"

Gray was confused. The pain was ebbing at his strength, and he was fighting consciousness. "Amestris?" He wheezed, "We don't know a lot about other kingdoms or countries, but I sure as hell don't know anything about Amestris. And no, I won't leave you alone, 'cuz you're kinda blocking an important trade route."

Military Man looked like he wanted to say more, when suddenly they both heard a young girl yelling "Wait!"

They both turned their heads to the sound, then back to each other. Then, the man turned tail and bolted, disappearing into the dying sand storm.

Suddenly, a young girl about Wendy's age, fourteen or so, appeared from his left. She ran in front of him, looking from side to side, calling "No! Wait! Please! I just want to...ugh." Then she turned to him, hands on hips.

She had long, loose blonde hair that swirled in the wind still messed up by the explosions. She was wearing a white tube-top and a bright pink skirt with two slits down the sides, giving her a sort of 'wild jungle girl' look.

"I finally manage to track him down after two weeks, get a good read on him, and when I was about to go and confront hi-" she stopped mid-sentence, as if just noticing Gray's injuries. "Oh, no." She muttered, bending down to him. Up close, Gray realized that she had striking purple eyes. Not like Erza's, which were a soft lilac, but a deep violet.

She locked eyes with him, and Gray felt kind of uncomfortable. After a minute she said "Seal the wound."

"What?" He asked, confused.

She gestured to his burn. "You're an Ice Mage. You use "Ice Make", so "Make" a seal and cover your burn. It'll seal the cuts and numb the burns."

"Oh, right." A little embarrassed, he made some ice and covered the burnt area, moulding it to his skin. Instantly he felt better. Why hadn't he thought of it earlier?

"I don't know why, because you've been burnt before. You know how to heal yourself. But the heat could've gotten to you."

_Did she just read my mind? _He wondered.

"No," she said simply. "But I can read your aura, which is kind if the same thing. You were confused and wondering. That means that you were wondering if I could read you mind. So, I can't read your thoughts, but more your emotions. Now, can you please make me a piece of ice, about the size of a fist?"

Confused, Gray did as he was asked. He held the fist-sized ball of ice in his hand.

"Thanks." The girl said, taking it from him. As she held it it took on a different shape and form, until she held a small vial in her hands filled with clear liquid. She held it back out to him, "Drink. I know you don't trust me, but this is just a painkiller. We've got to get you back to the Magnolia Hospital."

He stared in awe at her. "How did you know-"

She snorted. "Puh-lease. I don't have to be an Illusionist to know that you're in Fairy Tail. It's right on your chest, and you insist on being in your underwear. Everyone knows that Fairy Tail is in Magnolia. Magnolia thankfully has a good hospital. So guess where you're going."

She bent down and helped him up, his left arm around her shoulder.

"I can walk on my own!" He cried in frustration.

"No you can't." She hefted him a little bit.

"You're stronger than you look," he muttered.

She grunted. "I get that a lot. Now c'mon, drink that potion."

Gray looked at it wearily. "If I wanted to kill you, I would've already," she grunted.

Gary shrugged, tipping back the vial. The liquid was tasteless and cold. After he drank the last drop, the vial turned back to ice. Gray put it on his temple, hoping to cool his body temperature down.

The girl grunted again, shifting his weight to carry him easier. "let's get you out of here before you melt, Frosty."


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys I kind of forgot to do the disclaimer, so I am really sorry about that. I just want to say that I own nothing except Charlene. Also, I am updating randomly and the chapters are varied in lengths. I have a lot of other stuff on my plate, so yeah. Hope you enjoy!

Two worlds Cross

Chapter Two

"I can't believe that idiot!" Natsu yelled, slamming his fist on the table he sat at.

"Aye, sir!" Happy chimed in.

Lucy just rolled her eyes. "It's not that big of a deal. If Gray says that he can handle it, I'm sure that he can handle it."

"Is this faith in Gray-sama a declaration of love?" Came an angry voice behind her. Lucy jumped out of her seat, coming face to face with none other than Juvia.

Her blue eyes burrowed into her, and Lucy stammered "N-no, I-i'm just a trying to calm Natsu down. And what did I say about the whole 'love rival' thing?" She composed herself and sat back down.

"Acknowledging a teammate's strength is good. Knowing their weaknesses however, can benefit the whole team." They all turned as Erza came to their table. She sat down beside Lucy and mostioned for Juvia to do the same.

Soon, Mira came over with drinks. "I think that we're all a little high-strung right now. That job request had an odd sort of feel to it. But I'm sure that Gray can handle it." She smiled kindly, and after getting everyone their drinks, returned to the bar.

Natsu ignored his drink and put his chin on the table. "He's had plenty of practice fighting you," Lucy pointed out, "And there's no Fire Mage out there that's as strong as you."

"Yeah that's true," he said, perking up a little and sitting up straight, "But I bet you a hundred jewel that Gray's in the hospital."

Suddenly, they heard a crash from the bar. As the group ran forward, they saw that Mira was facing the guild's Communication Lacrima.

"What is it?" Erza demanded, while the others picked up the pieces of the plate that she'd dropped.

Mira seemed to shake out of her stupor and looked at Erza in fear. "That was just the Magnolia Hospital. Gray just checked in."

In a flash, the five of them raced out of the guild and to the hospital. After barging into the lobby, yelling at the receptionist, Natsu setting the desk plant on fire and Juvia having to put it out, they all stood or sat around Gray's hospital bed.

Juvia sat beside the bed in a chair, asking Gray a million times if he was okay. Lucy and Erza stood beside her, while Natsu sat on a chair in front of the bed by the door, laughing.

"Pfft! I can't believe you let a loser Fire Mage like that beat you!"

"I didn't just let him beat me! He used some weird type of magic!" Gray yelled in defiance. Juvia put a hand on his chest, pushing him back. He slumped against the headboard and grumbled "If it hadn't been for that girl, I probably would've died out there."

Juvia's eyes flared. "Girl?" She asked dangerously.

Before anyone could do anything, the girl in the pink skirt and white top came in, carrying a vanilla ice cream and a hot chocolate. "Hey, I brought you some ice cream, but I didn't know what kind you wanted so-" she stopped mid-sentemce, not even fully through the door. "Oh. I guess that I need more ice cream..."

Immediately, she was bombarded with questions.

"Who are you?" Was the general question, but more were asked.

"Where did you get those bracelets? And that outfit..."

"Wanna fight?"

"Are you okay? Where are your parents?"

"Fight me!"

"How did you find Gray-sama?"

"C'mon! Fight me! And why are you barefoot?"

The girl backed up a bit, surprised by the sheer volume of both questions and their voices.

"Oi!" Gray yelled, shutting them up, "Give her a chance to speak! Nngh..." He groaned, leaning over in bed.

"Gray-sama! Don't strain yourself, you'll open your wounds." Juvia rushed back to his side, getting his glass of water for him.

Natsu, Lucy, Happy and Erza turned back to her.

She smiled kindly, setting down the treats. "I guess that I should explain. My name is Charlene. See, I'm an Illusionist. It's an old brand of magic that's very rare. Even rarer than Dragon Slayer Magic," she said, nodding at Natsu. "I would prefer to explain myself once everyone is present, though."

The others glanced at each other. Before they could say a word, Wendy burst in through the door, with Charle flying behind her.

"Oh my!" She cried, rushing to Gray and immediately starting to work her Sky Magic on him. It took her a moment to realize that there was an extra person in the room. "Oh, hello." She said, smiling politely. "I'm Wendy. I hope you don't mind, I'm just healing Gray."

Charlene sipped her hot chocolate. "I know." She winced then put her drink down. "Wow. That sounded creepy. I guess that the better word would be 'sense'."

Everyone looked at her in confusion, then at Gray. He shrugged, "Hey, I know about as much as you do. We didn't exactly get a chance to talk when she was busy saving my life."

"About that," Charlene said, catching everyone's attention again, "In case I haven't stressed it enough. You're an idiot." There were cries of indignation, but she held up her hand. "You should all agree with me. He's an Ice Mage, going to fight a Fire Mage in the desert. Being proud is one thing, but being stupid is another. In hindsight, Natsu, Happy and Lucy should've taken the job."

Natsu jumped up, pumping his fist in the air, his tongue on fire. "Yeah! That just proves that I'm better than Gray!"

Erza re-quipped a sword, aiming it at Natsu. Immediately, he shut up and sat down, still obviously pleased with himself.

"No, you're not at all better," Erza said menacingly, "There are jobs that better suit your talents than his and vice versa. This was one of those jobs that wasn't compatible with Gray's magic."

"She's right," Lucy chimed in, "But, we still have plenty of questions. Like, what's an Illusionist?"

Charlene ran her hands up and down her legs, like she wasn't used to explaining her magic. "It's...hard to explain. See, everything in every world has a magical aura. Illusionists can sense and use that aura. That's how we get magic power: we use some of the power of the object, then change it into something else. Because of this, we hardly ever tap into our own reserves. Illusionists can only work on inanimate objects, but we can see all auras, even those of humans and other living organisms. We can differentiate people by their auras, the same way a Dragon Slayer can differentiate a person by their scent. Illusionists can even sense peoples emotions, which is kind of close to reading minds. That's how I knew that Wendy and Charle were on their way."

"Then how come you didn't 'sense'," Lucy used finger quotes on the word sense, "That other people were in here?"

Charlene smiled, "It's kinda stupid, but hot chocolate is actually my weakness. It has such a nice aura, I usually get totally absorbed in it, so my senses get blocked. Silly, huh?" She said, rubbing the back of her head.

"Well," Erza said calmly, "Now that we are all here, how about answering the rest of our questions?"

Charlene sat back in the chair, her pointer finger on her chin, as if she was thinking hard. "Hmmm... Okay, well I already explained who I am...this outfit and my bracelets are what Illusionists tend to wear." She gestured at the bangles on her ankles and wrists, and at a gold bracelet that spiralled up her upper arm. "I'm plenty fine, and I don't have any parents. And," she said glaring at the members of Fairy Tail, as they has all opened their mouths to say something, "I certainly do _not _need your sympathy. They've been dead for a long time. I've moved on." They all shut their mouths, but it was obvious that they wanted to say something. "I am barefoot because I can sense magic and auras better this way, and no, I will not fight you Natsu. (At this Natsu sank back and grumbled in his chair) and how I found Gray..." She trailed off, as if wondering how much she wanted to tell them.

Gray leaned forward in his bed, Wendy still healing him. "What is it, is something wrong?" He asked her.

"It's okay," Lucy said with a smile, "We won't tell anyone!"

Charlene bit her lip, her violet eyes boring into them. They all shivered, and had an odd sense that she was somehow peeing into their very souls...

Finally, she sighed and said "Actually, it was sort of an accident. I had been following someone else and Gray had kind of showed up and interrupted. He was badly hurt so I helped him."

"Yeah," Gray muttered, "You mentioned something earlier in the desert, something about tracking that guy for two weeks..."

"Why were you tracking him?" Natsu asked.

"Maybe she liiiiikes him!" happy said with a smirk.

Charle snorted, "Of course not, tom-cat! That's ridiculous!"

Everyone smiled and turned towards this strange girl, but their smiles disappeared when they saw her dark expression.

"He is not of this world." She said simply.

Immediately the room burst into small chatters and questions.

"What do you mean, 'not of this world?"

"Could it be like Edolas?"

"'Course not! There can't be more than one universe, Flame-brain!"

"And how is she supposed to know about Edolas in the first place, Ice-idiot!"

"But if he is from Edolas, than how did he get here?"

"And how is he supposed to use magic? Juvia thought that Natsu and the others took away the magic in that world!"

"Yes, but he could still use magic here. But it seems like he's known this magic for a while. He knew his stuff."

Charlene remained silent, listening to the questions. After a while, she spoke up. "He is not from Edolas."

"What?" Wendy said pausing her sky magic for a moment, "But you said that he is not of this world...?"

"He's not," Charlene said quietly, "But he's not from Edolas. He would have the aura of a resident of Edolas, which he does not."

"Wait," Erza said, sitting forward, "How would you know what a resident of Edolas' aura is like?"

The young girl shifted uncomfortably, like she was about to reveal some big secret.

"Well, you see, Illusionists specialize in the magic of objects and others. Which means that Illusionists study the magic of other worlds."

"What?!" Cried out everyone.

"What do you mean?" demanded Erza.

"Well," Charlene said quietly, "As you all know of Edolas, this might be easier to understand. Their are infinite worlds out there, with infinite possibilities. They could be as small changes as Natsu wears blue instead of black everyday. Or, they could be completely different like Edolas."

"And what you're saying is," Lucy said slowly, "you think that this man who Gray went after is from another world?"

Charlene shook her head, "I don't think, I _know. _He doesn't have the aura of this world, like everything here does."

Everyone looked slightly dubious and shot glances at one another.

"You don't believe me."

Everyone's heads snapped towards the young teen, who was looking very defiant and wild in her outfit. Before they could say anything, she just continued on.

"Don't bother. I can sense your emotions, remember? Anyways, I didn't really expect you to believe me. There's no way I can prove it, but I can try to explain it, if that'll help."

The Fairy Tail members all looked at each other and nodded. Erza turned back to Charlene. "Alright. Enlighten us then."

Charlene irritatedly blew a stray strand of blonde hair out of her face and slouched slightly, as if she were a grumpy high school student who had just received an assignment. "Okay. Well, Natsu, Wendy," the Dragon Slayers started at their names, "You know that each person has a different smell. But, there are layers and layers of scents that make up that smell. For example, Lucy would have the scent of a human, then a scent of this world, then the scent of a girl, and so on and so on until you have Lucy's smell."

Natsu and Wendy seemed very surprised and impressed. "T-that's exactly it," Natsu stuttered, "How...?"

"It's because peoples' auras are the same deal. Only we sense, not smell. So, are you going to try to believe me, or should I just leave now?" She sat back and crossed her arms and legs looking as if she didn't really care what they thought.

"No," it was Juvia who spoke, "Please, you helped Gray-sama. Now we want to help you."

Everyone else nodded and looked sincere. The young girl sighed.

_Honestly, _she thought, _what am I going to do with these Fairies?_

Then she sat up straight again and looked each of them in the eye. "Okay. But I don't exactly

Iike interruptions, so please wait until I'm done." After a moment of silence only broken by Wendy's Sky magic, she continued. "Well, about two weeks ago, I was in a town near the desert. Every day or so, I scan the area I'm in for suspicious auras. Well, this day I realized that someone's aura was different and I learned that a man had come from a different world. I wasn't sure how, so I followed him for a while so that I could get a good read on him. Unfortunately, I couldn't approach him until I found out everything that I could. It takes a while for me to get a good read on someone and their aura. If I have enough time, I can figure out what happened in their past. I can even see whether people are soulmates. Anyway, with all of the mages coming after him, he was always moving around, making it hard for me to read him properly. Finally today he managed to stay still long enough for me to figure him out. Just when I was about to approach him, I sensed another aura;one of ice and magic. Then, the two idiots fought, and just when Roy-"

"Roy?" Natsu blurted out. Erza, Lucy, and Gray all glared at him. "What?" He demanded, "I don't know who Roy is!"

"No no," said Charlene, smiling nervously. The last thing that she wanted to do was start a fight in the hospital. She didn't have to be an Illusionist to know of Fairy Tail's reputation of destruction. "It's alright, I must've forgot; Roy, or Colonel Roy Mustang, is the man who I've been tracking down. Now. Where was I? Oh yes, so when Roy was about to question Gray, I had to intervene and instead needed up chasing him off. Then I found out that you were hurt and had to bring you here."

After she didn't say anything, the others figured that she was done. "So..." Lucy asked tentatively, "Do you know how he got here?"

Charlene shrugged, "There are lots of ways to get to other worlds, but I'm guessing that since he doesn't know that he's in a different world than his own, that he must've accidentally gone through a portal."

"A portal?" Gray asked.

"Yeah," replied Charlene, "they're like doorways between the worlds. Depending on a whole bunch of variables, they can just pop up and disappear at random. Apparently he was out on a routine inspection/research trip. He had heard reports about people disappearing and decided to check it out. But, he ended up being sucked in. Thankfully, he knows how to survive on his own, so he's in no immediate danger."

"Then why does he keep attacking travellers?" Patiently asked Erza.

"Because," Charlene explained, "the country that he's from has a lot of enemies surrounding it's borders, and has only recently come out of a very long time of war. So it's natural to be nervous when he thinks he's in one of those border countries. If they happened to see his Amestris military uniform, he could be in serious danger."

"So," Juvia asked quietly, "Roy does not know that he is in another world?"

"Nope. It's quite common actually. But most of the time they make their way back. If not then w-someone has to intervene."

She had hesitated before she had said 'someone'. The others shot quick glances but soon stopped after remembering that she could read emotions.

"So..." Happy asked, gnawing on a fish that had appeared out of nowhere, "what now?"

"Well," Charle said, "we need to get Gray out of here and back to the guild. Then, we can figure out a plan. Wendy," Wendy looked up when Charle acknowledged her, "how long until you can be finished?"

Wendy lifted her hands and wiped her brow, "Done", she said with a smile, "it could have been done sooner, but this burn is...weird." She frowned at the place on Grays abdomen where it once was, now there was nothing there.

Charlene bit her lip, but kept quiet.

"Well," Lucy said, clapping her hands together, "if you're all good Gray, then we should head back. Everyone will be glad that you're alright." With that, she left the room, with Natsu and Happy right behind her, Erza walking briskly after them, and Wendy and Juvia stayed behind, making sure that Gray was alright.

"Geez!" Gray said irritably, "I'm fine! I can walk." He then straightened up and left the room, walking at a slightly slower pace than usual. Wendy left with Charle (she still wasn't one hundred percent confident that Gray was as fine as he said) and Juvia was about to follow when she remembered Charlene.

She looked and saw that the young girl was busy with her cup and the unbeaten ice cream.

Before her very eyes, Charlene changed the empty cup and ice-cream into a couple of Jewels {the currency, not the gems} and put them on the table.

"H-how did Charlene-san-"

Charlene winked and smiled warmly at her, "I am an Illusionist after all."

"Oh." Charlene was about to follow the others and leave the room, when Juvia caught her arm, and looked down nervously.

"What is it, Juvia?" Charlene could tell that Juvia was jittery and nervous.

"Well, um," she stuttered, trying to find the right words, "Juvia was wondering...Charlene-san said that she could tell of people were soulmates... Does Charlene-san think that-"

Charlene laughed good-naturedly. "I know what you're asking," Juvia perked up a little, "But I dont like interfering with other people's lives. Besides," she grinned, "it's no fun if I spoil it all for you."

With that, she turned and skipped down the hallway.


	3. Chapter 3

Two worlds cross, chapter three

The guild.

**Ok, I just want to say thanks to all of you who have read my stuff, I hope you like it! I might be adding chapter names but I don't know... Also, this story takes place after Edolas but before tenrou **(**this is gonna be a series**)

**And I guess that I should mention that I don't really plan on doing POVs in this, I kinda just switch from one person to another without saying so. It may be confusing but I feel that this is better to get everyone's thoughts and emotions in.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail nor Fullmetal Alchemist. If I did, id be living in a mansion in Japan right now.**

Charlene walked the streets of Magnolia beside the Fairy Tail members, smiling inwardly. She could sense the happiness and friendly annoyance from the commuters going about. Everyone in Fiore had a special honour of Fairy Tail, even though not everyone knew it.

The Mages were already goofing around, Gray and Natsu calling each other names, Lucy rolling her eyes, Wendy and Charle looking worried, Erza keeping a careful eye on them, and Happy flying around saying "Aye, sir!"

Lucy looked back to see that Charlene was smiling, and fell back to talk to her. "What's so funny?" She asked teasingly.

"Oh, it's just that everyone's emotions are so warm and friendly with each other. It's really nice." She smiled brighter up at Lucy, who returned the smile.

"But," she asked worriedly, "why are you back here, instead of up with us?"

"Oh, that?" Charlene laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's just that I'm not really used to being so familiar with people. I've been a hermit for quite a while, yknow."

Lucy didn't quite know how to respond. "How old are you?" She asked after a moment of silence between them.

'Fourteen."

Lucy couldn't help but stare. Everyone at Fairy Tail had their own dark pasts and hardships, but _wow. _She wondered what on Earthland could have made this girl want to be a hermit. At least everyone at the guild had been in search of companionship of some sort. She then remembered that this girl had no parents. In the back of her mind, Lucy thought that almost everyone in the guild could sympathize with that, herself included.

"Don't worry about it," replied the young girl easily, and Lucy remembered her ability to read people's emotions. "It's not that big a deal. I had some bad things happen to me, and it's just best that I work alone. Besides, we all have secrets." She winked.

Lucy started, but laughed. The others looked back at them, the girls smiling along with Happy, while Natsu said "Weirdo Lucy."

"Hey!" She cried out indignantly. Everyone laughed good-naturedly as the guild loomed before them.

Suddenly, Charlene stopped short, wincing and clutching her head. Her face was wrinkled, as if she had just come down with a massive headache.

Wendy noticed and turned around, everyone noticing Charlene. "What happened?" The young bluenette asked softly. "Are you okay?"

After a moment, Charlene took her hands away from her head and smiled. "Yeah, thanks. I'm fine. It's just..." She trailed off, staring in awe at the guild that loomed mere feet before her. "It's been a long time since I've sensed this many emotions in one place. I can't wait to meet the members."

With that, the others copied her smile and Natsu burst through the doors.

"Hey, everyone, we're _back!_"

Everyone in the guild turned towards the doors. A handful of people came up and were pressing them with questions. But, before any could be answered, Natsu punched Gray hard in the arm.

"Watch it, Flamebrain!" Gray called out, rubbing his arm. "The hell was that for?"

Natsu laughed obnoxiously and pointed at him, "That's for disgracing Fairy Tail and messing up a simple job. If you can't beat a loser Fire Mage like that, there's no way in hell that you can beat me!"

Suddenly, Gray punched Natsu in the face, which very quickly turned into a brawl between them. Everyone wisely stayed out of their way. Unfortunately, the pair made their way to a certain dark corner where an Iron Dragon Slayer was seated, munching on screws and sitting with a bluenette Solid-Script Mage. Accidentally, (not really) a flaming fist connected with Gajeel's face, and he glowered and punched the attacker back. But, he missed and instead hit Gray. Within seconds, the three of them were locked in battle, raging around the hall.

With a sigh, Levy closed her book and stood up, making her way over to the guild doors, where the rest of the gang still stood. Panther Lily flew behind her, both of them expertly ducking and swerving around tables, plates, chairs, and cutlery that were flying around.

"Hey, Lu-chan!" Levy called out happily.

"Levy-chan!" Lucy replied, smiling and waving as Levy stood beside her.

"Hey, Erza," Levy asked, "Do you know what happened with Gray?"

"Not exactly," Erza replied with a smile, "But I know who does." After getting a confused look, Wendy pointed at Charlene, who had been standing quietly, apparently awed by the now guild-wide brawl.

Charlene hadn't sensed this many good emotions in so long! Even though they were fighting, she could tell that they all cared for each other, and were very protective of nakama. Suddenly, she sensed a questioning aura from someone who had recently walked up. _I'll have to keep an eye on that, _she thought to herself, _with this many powerful emotions and auras, it'll be hard to focus on anything. I better not let myself get caught in a battle with them, it could mess things up..._

She turned to a bluenette who was about Lucy's age and smiled at her. She could tell that she was questioning who she was.

Charlene stuck out her hand with a smile. "I'm Charlene. And you must be Levy, the lovely Solid-Script Mage that I've been hearing about."

Flattered and a little flushed, she shook the young girl's hand and was surprised by her strong grip. She turned towards her fellow guild mates, "Did you blab all of my dark secrets?" She asked teasingly.

Charlene laughed. "No,no, your secrets are safe. I'm just a traveller is all. Fairy Tail is very famous, no matter how you put it." The fairies with her laughed and shared a knowing smile; Fairy Tail had a reputation, that was for sure.

Then, the girls made their way to the back of the guild trying their best to stay out of the fight. Erza got hit in the head with a chair by Elfman, and immediately joined the fray.

Finally, the rest of the girls and Exceeds reached the bar. Mira smiled at them from behind the counter, wiping glasses. "Hello, I see that you've brought a guest. A potential member perhaps...?"

"Oh, Mirajane, this is Charlene-san and she helped Juvia's Gray-sama. Juvia saw Charlene-san do magic, it is quite wonderful," Juvia said, smiling at the young girl, who flushed and looked down at the counter. She wasn't used to getting compliments, and her helping Gray wasn't that big of a deal.

"What kind of magic so you do?" Lily inquired.

"Oh," Charlene said, "I'm an Illusionist. I can change the form of things, sense magical auras, and a whole bunch more."

"Can we please see?" Mira asked excitedly.

Charlene was just about to say something, when they all heard Natsu yell "Heads up!" as a flying table came at them at terminal velocity.

Mira ducked behind the bar, the Exceeds flew straight up out of harm's way, Levy, Lucy and Wendy dropped off of their stools and to the ground. Since Juvia was all water, the table wouldn't bother her, so she just sat there, sipping a glass of tea. Charlene, on instinct, threw up her hands. The table glowed a soft light that was a million colours and then changed into a smaller, rounder shape. The object was flying at them, and Charlene caught a small rubber ball in her hand, bouncing it up and down on the counter.

After realizing that they were safe, the rest of the girls returned to their normal positions. They stared at the young teen in awe.

"So, is that your magic?" Mira asked curiously.

Charlene nodded, a little embarrassed that she had had to use her magic on an object that big and obvious. She didn't like going around shoving her magic in other people's faces.

"That's so cool!" Wendy, Lucy and Levy all said at the same time. Happy agreed with an "Aye, sir!", while the other Exceeds and Mirajane just stared in awe.

"So," Charlene asked, trying to change the subject, "I knew that Fairy Tail was..._rambunctious, _but is it always like this?"

"This is everyone's first impression of Fairy Tail," they all said together, then laughed.

"So," Mirajane asked, "Are you thinking of joining?"

A dark expression crossed her features and Charlene looked away. "I usually work alone."

The take-over Mage looked at the others, obviously looking for answers. Levy looked just as confused, and was just as desperate for an answer.

Lucy leaned forward, and whispered so that only Mira and Levy could hear, "She's been alone a while. No parents. I suggest that we leave her alone. Oh, and she can read emotions."

After a moment, Mira and Levy understood, and tried to change the subject.

"So," Levy asked innocently, "like any books?"

Charlene's eyes lit up, and she smiled. She could still sense the unease amongst the girls, but the fight in the background was messing her up a little bit. But, she did know that they were trying to be nice and making an effort.

"Yeah!" She chirped, "This one series that I read was really good!"

"Really?" Lucy asked, "what was it?"

"Well, I can't remember the name, but it was about a non-mage girl who becomes friends with a Mage. He tried to teach her magic but for some reason she can't, and starts to think that she's useless. But along the way, she realizes that magic isn't the ultimate promblem-solver, and she doesn't need magic to be strong."

"Juvia thinks that she's read that..." Juvia said, closing her eyes as if trying to conjure up the title.

"Well," Wendy interjected, "it sounds really good!"

"Yeah, I'll have to read it!" Lucy chimed in. It went on like that for a while; the girls and Exceeds just chatting, completely ignoring the fight going on behind them. After all of the boys and Erza had tired themselves out, they went back to normal, and the three who had originally started the fight plus Erza made their way over to the bar.

Now that the fight had dissipated, Charlene could read everyone's auras better. The tall brute with white hair and a scar talking to a brunette with glasses sitting at a table with a few other girls, was Elfman Strauss, the Beast Take-Over Mage. He was talking to Evergreen, a Fairy Mage who had the special ability to turn people to stone. She was sitting with the youngest Strauss sibling, Lisanna the Animal Take-Over Mage, a young purple-haired girl named Kinina, who had a snake-like aura for some reason, and Laki, the Wood Mage.

Bisque and Alzak, the Gun Mages, were sitting together and discussing their latest job. At another table, the Card Mage, Kana, was drinking a barrel of booze, while chatting with Romeo, who was too young to be a Mage, Freed, a Rune Mage, and Bixlow, a Soul Mage.

The newcomer that was with Erza, Natsu and Gray was Gajeel Redfox, the Iron Dragon Slayer. Charlene could sense that this man had a dark past, but he was now walking in the light. _The light of the Fairies, _Charlene thought.

As they approached the bar, Gajeel sat beside Levy and gestured at Charlene, "Who's the kid?"

"Charlene," Levy said calmly, then added in a hushed tone so that only his Dragon Slayer ears could hear, "and be nice!"

"Charlene saved my life!" Gray said, ruffling Charlene's hair. She glared at him; she did _not _like people touching her, _especially _her _hair._

"By the way, what exactly happened?" Mira asked curiously, leaning forward on the counter.

"Yeah," asked Elfman, "what happened?" By now everyone in the guild was crowded around trying g to hear and see the person that had saved Gray.

"Uh, well, you see," Charlene stuttered. She did not like people staring at her, let alone an _entire guild _trying to catch a glimpse.

"Leave the poor girl alone!" Came an old voice, and Charlene sighed in relief. The Master had come, surely he would make them leave her alone, right?

Charlene needed to get her magic checked.

As soon as a short, balding man approached her, he smiled and waved. She knew that this was the Third and Sixth Master of Fairy Tail, the Wizard Saint, Makarov. She had expected him to tell them all to leave her alone, let her breathe, and so on. But instead, he grew and hoisted her up on his shoulders so that everyone could see her.

"Go ahead, child. Tell us what happened. We are all very curious."

With a gulp, Charlene started to stutter out the story. As she got further into it, she became more relaxed. She even turned the bouncy-ball back into a table, just so that they could all see her magic. She could sense that they were all impressed, and even some pride from Team Natsu for being the ones to bring her there.

When she was finished, Makarov put her down, and she answered question after question. After a while, the Fairies left her alone, but she was still flustered from having to speak in front of everyone.

"How do you do that?" She asked exasperated as she sat down back at the bar.

"Do what?" Mira asked kindly.

"Get up in front of everyone, talk _and sing! _I just don't get you people." She sighed and put her chin on the counter. Mira giggled.

"It's not that big of a deal. I'm just so familiar with everyone here, I have no fear talking and even singing to them." Her expression and voice softened, "You're not used to being around people, are you?"

She shook her head, lifting her chin up off of the counter and into her hands, resting her elbows on the bar. "Not like this, no. I haven't had a good conversation with someone for so long...I haven't told anyone about my magic in years..." Charlene could feel herself starting to drone on, so she mentally shook herself. _No,_ she thought, _I will not let these people get close. I have an important job to do, and although it was nice making conversation, I should get going. I have to find Roy and get him back..._

Suddenly, Lucy and Natsu came up, with Happy flying behind them. "Hey Mira, Charlene," Lucy said happily, "I'm going home now. Can you please make sure that these two don't follow me home," she jabbed a finger at the boys, "I need to work on my novel."

"Sure thing Lucy." Mira smiled, and Charlene smiled inwardly. She was going to send Natsu and Happy right after Lucy, hoping that something would finally happen between the two.

"Oh," Lucy said, as if just remembering something, "do you have a place to stay?" She asked Charlene.

She shrugged. "Not really. But I can make a house with my magic-"

"No way!" Natsu said, "We can't just leave you alone without a place to stay! If we did, what kind of friends would we be?"

_Friends. _The word echoed in her head. She didn't have time for friends. She had stopped making friends years ago.

"C'mon!" Lucy said, smiling and pleading at her, "You can stay at my place! I know I said that I was working on my novel, but I wouldn't mind you coming over!"

"Hey," Natsu protested, "I thought you said that we couldn't come over!"

"I did, and it haven't changed my mind. You're _still _going to stay away tonight, I don't want you scaring the crap out of Charlene in the middle of the night!"

"It's fine," Charlene said, trying to get her own word in, "Thank you for the offer, but I promise to be quiet. I need to do a Scan anyway."

Natsu looked confused, "A Scan?"

Charlene nodded, "Yeah, it's when I send out my power and read auras from far-away places. I need quiet to do so, but I think that Lucy will be fine with that." She smiled up at Lucy. Who returned the expression.

"See?" She said, glaring pointedly at Natsu and Happy, "We need some peace and quiet tonight, so stay away." Then she turned back to Charlene and grabbed her hand. Before she could protest at the contact, Lucy pulled away through the guild, only giving her enough time to wave back at everyone, wishing them all a good night.

When they got to Lucy's, Charlene had plopped down on the couch, changed her skirt and tube-top to loose pants and a tank-top, and sat cross-legged.

"Sorry to be so forward," she said sheepishly, it had been a while since she had been I someone's house, "but don't worry about me getting the bed. As long as I can sit like this comfortably, I don't need a bed."

"But," Lucy asked worriedly, "Won't you get tired? You need to sleep, yknow."

Charlene smiled knowingly at her, "When I Scan, I shut my boys down to an almost complete stop, so as to preserve energy. I use my magic to send out signals and read auras. While my mind, magic, and soul are busy, my body rests and gets sleep. So I have no real need for a bed."

Lucy seemed slightly crestfallen. "So I guess that you didn't really need to stay here."

Charlene could tell that Lucy was disappointed that she had done nothing for the girl. In an effort to cheer her up she quickly replied, "Well, it's been a long time since I've been in a house as nice as this, or had something as comfy to sit on as a couch. And it's been even longer since I've had a sleepover."

This immediately picked the girl up, and she smiled. "Although, it will be a very _quiet _sleepover." They both laughed, and set to their own tasks.

_She had found him, still wandering in the desert. There was a portal not far from where he was. If only he would go North..._

_She kept a look out for any suspicious auras or activity, but sensed none. The trade route had long been closed, so no travellers or traders to be worrying about._

_Not sensing anything dangerous or even remotely strange, Charlene was about to stop the Scan and set her mind to sleep. Scanning didn't feel near as good as sleeping, but it kept her functioning properly. She hadn't slept properly in days, spending the nights of the last two weeks keeping an eye on things. Suddenly, she felt the presence of five new and odd auras, coming from the desert, a little ways north of Roy..._

Suddenly, a loud crash woke her from her trance. She heard Lucy scream, and sensed two new presences. She was about to go in and help her friend, but realized that the scream had been one of shock, not fear. And the two auras belonged to Happy and Natsu.

She sighed in relief and looked at a stray notebook and pen on the coffee table. Quickly and quietly, she changed her clothes back to her normal skirt and top, and scribbled out a note, thanking Lucy and the others for their kindness and hospitality. She told them that she had to go by herself and for them not to worry. She signed it, but it back to that Lucy would clearly see it, and turned to leave. As she got to the door, hand on the knob, she was stopped by a certain Salamander's voice. "Where ya goin'?"

She mentally cursed herself and said quietly, "I have to leave. Thank you, for everything, but I gotta go."

Charlene opened the door and was about to step through and leave, when she heard Lucy and Happy.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked quietly and kindly.

Charlene sighed. She could sense the fear for herself coming from Lucy, also the curiosity and kindness. She was _so _going to regret her next move.

She shut the door and stepped away, looking at their worried faces. "There are more of them."

It took them a moment, but the Fairies understood. "How many?" Lucy asked.

"Five. They just came through. They're all from the same place as Roy, probably looking for him. I have to go out and find them and get them back."

Lucy walked forward, pulling the young girl into a hug. She could feel her tense, but chose to ignore it. Natsu walked over and smiled, Happy on his shoulder. "Do ya really think that we'd let a friend out alone into the desert at this time of night? I don't care how cool your magic is, you're staying."

Charlene looked up at the pink-haired Dragon Slayer. She knew that they were all genuinely worried for her, and wanted to help. Yup. She was regretting not just walking out and leaving these people. She had learned long ago to not get attached. You only get hurt in the end.

Lucy pulled away and smiled at her kindly, her brown eyes meeting Charlene's violet ones. "How about this; we get some sleep, go to the guild, get some of our friends to help us, and catch the first train out of Magnolia?"

Charlene groaned in her mind. She did _not _want other people with her. They would just complicate things. But it's not like she could say no. These people were genuinely caring about her (which, if she was perfectly honest with herself, she had missed a lot in solitude) and it would be rude to decline them.

"Alright."

Lucy squealed and hugged her tighter, while Natsu pumped his flaming fist in the air, and Happy yelled "Aye, sir!"

_ Maybe these Fairies aren't so bad after all. _She thought.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello readers. I have decided to do chapter names after all. Better late than never, eh? So yeah, sorry it's late, but I've been awfully busy, and Christmas is coming up fast. So again, please be patient. I only hope that the wait is worth it;) So yeah, here is chapter 4, please enjoy.**

Two Worlds Cross, Chapter 4

THE ENCOUNTER

_Why am I doing this?_ Thought Charlene to herself. She was in the carriage with Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Erza, Gray, Wendy and Charle. They were back in the desert, with Natsu moaning and groaning and threatening to throw up everywhere. Wendy couldn't use Troia, in case they might need it later, so they all had to suffer. They were complaining and being loud and annoying. _Wonder why I stayed by myself for so long, _she thought sarcastically.

She recalled the morning, when she had woken up early, hoping to leave before anyone noticed. But they did, and she had had to wait an extra hour for Lucy to get ready, go to the guild, and inform Mira and Master that they were leaving. A whole _hour. _Charlene could've been at the train station by then. And then they had had to wait even _longer _when Gray, Wendy, Charle and Erza had wanted to come along. Juvia had wanted to come too, claiming that she wouldn't be leaving her Gray-sama alone in the desert again anytime soon (which Charlene did not get, after all there were seven extra people coming along), but it was Gray who had promised to come back to the guild safe and sound. Even then she reluctantly let them go. Then, finally, _finally, _they had reached the train station. After an hour long ride, they reached the desert town and hailed a carriage to take them out into the harsh domain.

"So," Gray said rubbing his hands together, "When will we get to meet these other guys?"

"Yeah!" Natsu popped his head up, his motion sickness momentarily forgotten, "I can't wait to fight this Flame Alchemist guy and his buddies!" Then, as soon as it had worn off, his sickness came back like a punch to the gut, and he leaned back over, trying to keep in his lunch.

"You're not fighting them!" Lucy exclaimed.

"That's right," Charlene hissed, "Our mission here is to find these people, get them all together, and get them back home. That's _it._"

"And," Erza interjected, "if there is any fighting, I will personally return the pain tenfold."

"A-aye!" Gray did his best Happy impression, his shirt already off and on the floor.

"Y-you're clothes..." Wendy pointed out shyly, covering her face and flushing.

As Gray hurried to put his clothes back on, Charlene closed her eyes. One of the good things that came from this is that she'd finally gotten a good night's sleep. Now, she could Scan and not worry about being too tired-

She flinched, broken out of her Scanning reverie by the shouting in the carriage. There was no way that she could properly perform a Scan with them being like this. And she could sense from these people's auras that they would simply refuse to be quiet. It was in their nature, they were Fairy Tail after all.

Suddenly, Charlene perked up. "Stop." She said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her.

"Why-" Lucy started to ask, but she was cut off by Charlene.

"Stop the carriage. Now!" She demanded. The driver heard her, and confusedly stopped. She got off, thanking him and then running off into the dunes.

As the Mages followed her, the driver caught Erza, "But Miss," he said kindly and confused, "There's nothin round for miles. And they say that a dangerous man is loose in these parts."

Erza smiled, "Don't worry, we can take care of ourselves." With that, she raced off, following the others.

The poor old driver was about to say something, when a mark on the pink-haired boy's shoulder caught his eye. _Fairy Tail, eh? _He thought to himself. He smiled and flicked the reins, driving back to the safety of the town. It _was_ Fairy Tail, and he'd heard the stories, they could handle anything thrown at them. And honestly, a part of him was feeling very lucky indeed, considering nothing had gotten broken.

Erza caught up to Lucy and Wendy, who were a few paces behind Natsu and Gray, with Charlene leading. "What's going on?" Erza demanded.

"Charlene-san must've sensed something, but she hasn't said anything," Wendy answered.

Up ahead, Charlene barked something out to the boys, pointed, then fell back to the girls. "The boys know which way to run" she explained, "I'm going to need you guys to protect me for a few minutes, leave me undisturbed. I'm going to do a Read, where I can see the details in the auras. I'm going to figure out who these new people are, so that we can figure out how to approach them." The girls nodded, and Charlene closed her eyes and glowed a very faint light. She started mumbling things like "Elric, Alchemy, Amestris, Hawkeye, auto-mail, Homunculi, Xing," and they didn't understand a word of it, but let her be.

As they neared a particularly large sand dune, Natsu raised his head and sniffed. "I smell 'em!" He yelled, calling back to the others.

Wendy lifter her nose and started sniffing the air too. "Yeah", she said, pointing to the large dune, "they're right over there!" Everyone picked up pace a little bit, both excited and nervous as to who and what they might find. In the distance they could hear yelling, originating from the dune in front of them. It sounded like two boys in a fight (and they knew _exactly _what that sounded like). They could also hear women's voices too, and one voice sounded particularly familiar...

Charlene kept mumbling words that seemed nonsense, but they seemed to be helping her keep her concentration. Suddenly, she opened her eyes, and Lucy, who was right beside her, saw that her eyes were just glowing orbs of light. She stifled a gasp as Charlene barked one word "_Left!_", and jumped to the left behind her. _Wha_- Lucy started to ask in her mind, but was interrupted as a body slammed into hers, pinning her to the ground and pushing her to the left.

Not a heartbeat later, a wall of solid rock erupted from the ground, starting at one end and rising up, going on for at least a mile. Strange blue light flickered around it, and Lucy realized that Charlene must've sensed it coming, and that's why she told them all to duck left. It's a good thing that someone had pushed her out of the way.

As the dust settled and the light died down, Lucy saw that it was Natsu who had pinned her down. "Thanks," she said somewhat irritably, as he had not gotten up yet, "But you can get off me now."

As he was getting up off of her, Happy saw them and sang "They liiiiiiiiiiiike each other!"

"Shut up, stupid cat!" Lucy yelled back, her face red. She would've strangled the cat, but they all ducked instinctively, still filled with adrenaline, as they heard a gunshot ring out.

"Let's go!" Charlene yelled, on her feet and running, "They're right over the crest!" The others followed her, the suspense building as they were all curious as to what they were about to see...

Well, it wasn't what they were expecting, to say the least.

As they reached the flat top of the sand dune, they saw five people standing there: two boys with golden hair, one of which had his in a regular braid at his back, wearing a strange red coat and black pants. The other boy had his hair cut short, but sort of messy. He wore a simple white button-down with khakis. They both looked similar and had the same golden eyes, so the Fairies could assume that they were brothers.

The rest of the party was female. There was a girl who had long blonde hair and blue eyes, and she was wearing a simple skirt and tank top. Another girl also had blonde hair that was pinned up, but brown eyes, and she wore a military uniform that fit Gray's description of what his attacker had worn. She looked very familiar, but they were sure that they had never met her before... The last girl was small, probably about Wendy and Charlene's age, but short for her age. She had black hair separated into six small braids, gathered in two balls tied with ribbon at her head. She wore a strange pink dress, and had a very tiny black and white cat on her shoulder.

But that's not all; the boy with the braid was standing very close to the wall of rock, and there was a smoking bullet hole in his left leg. He looked shocked and angry, and was glaring daggers at the blonde military woman, who was holding a shotgun with one hand, totally impartial. The other blonde girl was yelling at the both of them, and the other two were trying to calm everyone down.

"-Didn't have to shoot my auto-mail!" The blonde-haired blue-eyed girl was yelling. She seemed unbothered by the fact that she was yelling at someone with a recently shot gun.

"Don't worry," the woman said calmly and patiently, "I didn't shoot anything vital. And besides, would you have rather that I shot one of his other limbs?"

"Why shoot me at all?" The raised boy demanded angrily. "It's not like I did anything wrong!"

"Um, brother," the other big asked timidly, smiling nervously, "You did just perform alchemy on a foreign country's land..."

"It's not like I expected it to actually _work! _I can't use alchemy."

"Then why did you even bother to do it?" Asked the dark-haired girl.

"It's instinct!" he barked back.

The woman with the gun was about to say something, when she saw the group of people standing there, watching them. She whirled around, holding her gun with two hands and glaring at them. She, and everyone facing her, gasped.

She had made eye contact with Erza, and both felt like they were looking in a mirror. Sure, the hair and eye colour was different, but other than that, they could be twins. Their faces, their voices, the way they acted. Every Fairy Tail member saw this, and instantly wondered if it was the Erza from Edolas, but with a different colour scheme. The blonde woman, however, was completely taken by surprise.

She had dealt with fake look-alikes before. Heck, she had had to battle Envy when he had tried to pretend to be the Colonel. But the "same but different" look was definitely throwing her off. They looked the same, but had different colours.

She shook it off, promising to investigate later. "Who are you?" she demanded, "And where are we?"

The others of her group looked and saw who she had been talking to. They too seemed shocked. The girl with the scarlet hair looked almost exactly like Hawkeye. Mai silently cursed herself for not noticing their Chi earlier.

"Listen," Charlene said kindly, smiling and stepping forward, shaking the Fairies out of their reverie."We are here to help you. Please, just put the gun down and we can just ta-"

She was cut off by Natsu, who had started to simultaneously combust. The younger blonde screamed, the others looked on in terrified awe, and the military Erza looked as if she was seeing some terrible thing of the past.

"I don't know who you are," Natsu yelled, "But you sure as hell ain't Erza, so stop actin like you can boss us around!"

_Oh no,_ Edward thought, _not again. _Just about two years ago, his whole world had spiralled into madness. Sure, they dealt with alchemy, which had always been a dangerous art, but the weirdness that had followed Ed and Al around for over a year had been too much. First, they found out that the Philosopher's Stone needed human souls to be made, so they couldn't get their bodies back that way. Then, they had discovered the Fifth Laboratory, and started uncovering secrets that were really not to be messed with. Then, they had found out about Homunculi, and the fact that they actually _exist. _Then, his dad turned out to be some 400 year old used-to-be slave who was sort of the father of alchemy. And _before that, _they had met Ling and Mai, and Scar before them, and Father Cornello before them... Heck, Ed could go on forever about how weird his life was, even for an Alchemist. And now, it was happening all over again. Ok, yeah, these people had weird style (but really, who was he to judge), but seemed relatively normal. (Except for the guy without a shirt, but whatever.) But now, this guy just randomly bursts into flames and starts ranting about how Hawkeye couldn't boss him around (which she probably could, considering she was practically the Colonel's babysitter). And the flames aren't even bothering him. In fact, he looks perfectly comfortable cloaked in flames. Scary, absolutely, but he seemed comfortable. _Yep. Here starts the weirdness. _

Suddenly, Gray punched Natsu, shielding his fist with ice so as not to get burned. "Shut up, Flame-Brain, you're scarin' em for Pete's sake!" The new-comers and their other Hawkeye seemed unaffected by the events unfolding before them in fact, they looked like they were mad for scaring the others.

"Just like that water-alchemist who we fought in Central," Ed heard Al mutter. He remembered it too, but couldn't think of the name. He suddenly remembered that he had been able to perform alchemy on his own body, using his blood as a substitute for water. Ed wondered if this weird shirtless dude could do the same. Then he realized something.

"Hey, wait a minute," Ed started, cutting off the red-haired Hawkeye, causing her to glare at him (which did _not _send shivers down his spine, no matter what Al and Winry said later), "How did you do that?" He asked.

The ice boy looked confused, and started taking his pants off almost subconsciously. Before Ed could lunge to cover Winry's eyes, the redhead smacked him hard, the pink-headed flame boy laughed, the little girl with blue hair covered her eyes and blushed, the busty blonde glared at him, and the younger blonde just pinched the bridge of her nose, as if she _really _didn't want the others there right now.

"Gray," the white cat suddenly barked, making the Amestrians jump, (they hardly noticed the blue and white cat, not taking much note of them, being cats and all), "I understand that you have a habit, and it is hot outside, but there are frightened and _young people here,_" she shot a glare pointedly at the blue-haired girl and Mai.

"Sorry," the man called Gray said, rubbing the back of his head where the red-head had smacked him, "It's not like I can control it." Ed and Al instinctively grabbed onto Winry and Mai, ready to cover their eyes at a moments notice. _Really?_ They all thought, _A guy who can't control a stripping habit?_"

Gray turned back to them and answered Ed's question, which he had almost forgotten. "And to answer your question, it's a part of my magic."

Ed couldn't help but laugh (rather rudely), "_Magic?_" He spluttered out, "Okay buddy, whatever you say." He turned to Al and smirked, clutching his sides. "Hey Al, remember Father Cornello?"

Al laughed nervously, "Yeah, the fake priest in Liore, right?"

"That's the one!" Ed called back barely holding back laughter, his tone teasing and slightly condescending, "Yeah, he was _real _magical huh?" he laughed again, causing the Fairies to stare at him oddly.

_Why don't they believe in magic? _Lucy thought, _Even in Edolas, though their magic was different, they still _had _magic. And what about this false priest...?_"

Charlene stepped forward. She could sense the confusion and hostility in the Fairy Tail members, and the eldest Elric was not making it any better. "Listen," she tried again, speaking louder but keeping her tone soft, "This may sound odd, but we actually _do _have magic. Everyone here with me posses it, actually. In this world, everyone uses magic. Not everyone practices it, but it is a part of normal everyday life." _Well, excluding the other countries, but Fiore has always kind of been on its own. We don't need to worry about those other lands right now... _Charlene thought, keeping that last bit to herself. No need to get things complicated. Well, more complicated than they already were.

Ed had stopped his laughing, and everyone on his side turned serious.

"You're joking," Winry asked nervously, shuffling her feet. Sure, she had experienced alchemy first hand, having grown up with the Elrics, but she couldn't say that she was especially familiar with it, since Ed gave it up. But this was a little much. "Right?" She stared at each of the so-called "magic-users" in front of her, and when their expressions softened slightly, they smiled and dint say anything, she groaned and smacked her hand to her head. "Geez. I'm just a simple auto-mail mechanic. I didn't ask for any of this alchemy or magic."

Ed laughed and draped his arm around her again. "Well," he said with a light laugh, "What'd ya expect? It's us, everything weird happens to us. This is just another one of those weird things."

Charlene sighed in relief. No one had yet started a fight, they were slowly easing into each other's presence (though Erza and Hawkeye were still suspicious of each other and kept eyeing the other warily), and the other-worlders had taken the magic news pretty well. _What did I expect? _She thought to herself, _This is the Elrics, Mai Chang, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, and Winry Rockbell. I expect nothing less from these guys. So far so good..._

She was just about to suggest introductions so that they could all stop calling each other nicknames or specifying them by their appearance, when she sensed an aura approaching fast. Mai sensed it too, because she perked up and focused on a point to the left of the group.

"What is it?" Al asked.

"His Chi," Mai explained dreamily, "Can't you sense it?" Al was confused for a moment, then he realized that a familiar flow of Chi was coming their way from the left.

Before they could tell anyone, Roy Mustang appeared from the point that Mai was staring at, emerging from the dune.

He looked tired, hot, and worn down. His face instantly brightened when he saw Riza and the others (but mostly Riza), but darkened when he saw who was with them.

He glared at Gray, fingers primed, the glove on, "_You._"

Gray glared back, and his body seemed to glow an icy blue light as he got into his Ice Make: stance. He had managed to keep his pants, thankfully, but he was still shirtless. "_You._" He echoed back, just as threateningly.

_Oh great, _she thought bitterly, smacking her palm to her forehead, _I should've known not to jinx it._


	5. Chapter 5 from bad to worse

**hey guys sorry that this took so long. Christmas happened and I didn't get a spare moment and then exams and ugh. Sorry. Plus, this chapter was hard to write and really long, but I hope that you guys like it. Don't worry, there will be plenty of chapters for this. Plus, it's going to be a series, so buckle up. Without further adeu **

CHAPTER 5

From Bad to Worse

_This is why I work alone, _Charlene thought for what seemed like the millionth time. Gray and Mustang were glaring daggers at each other, and she could sense the hatred and anger pouring out from them.

All of a sudden, Natsu jumped in, his hands on fire, "Hell, if Gray's fightin', so am I!" Gray then proceeded to punch Natsu in the face, yelling

"This is my unfinished business, Flame-Brain! Stay outta this!" Natsu and Gray continued and began one of their usual fights, kicking and punching each other, calling nicknames all the while. Mustang looked confused, but before he could do anything, he was pulled into the fray.

"Look out Colonel," Ed yelled, cracking his knuckles and joining in on the action.

"I thought that we weren't fighting?" Wendy asked quietly.

"Honestly, did you really think that they could even hold out this long?" Lucy replied, looking as if she had expected something like this would happen. Winry, Al, and Mai made their way over to where the two girls and Exceeds stood.

"Does this happen a lot?" Winry asked nervously.

"You'd be surprised," Charle said in annoyance. The second party all flinched, still not at all used to the idea of a talking, flying cat.

"Honestly, I'm not that surprised," Al said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Brother's like that too; he loves picking fights. Especially if someone insults his height."

"But they're never this _vicious._" Mai said nervously. She sensed their Chis, and they were powerful. She looked up at Lucy and Wendy. "Will they be alright?"

Lucy laughed, "They fight a lot, but they can handle themselves. What about your guys, will they be okay?"

Al, Winry, and Mai laughed. "They'll be just fine." Al said happily.

Lucy held out her hand to Winry, "I'm Lucy, and this is Wendy," Wendy smiled kindly and waved, "and this is Happy and Charle." Happy beamed while Charle nodded when she was introduced.

Winry took Lucy's hand and shook it. "I'm Winry, and this is Mai and Al." Mai smiled and Al raised his hand. The strange cat on Mai's shoulder growled, and Winry laughed, "Oh, and this is Xiao Mai, the panda."

The Fairies blinked in confusion at the creature. "But aren't pandas supposed to be big? And aren't they bears, not cats?" Happy asked innocently (well, _he _thought it was innocent)

Mai crossed her arms angrily. "He has a stunted growth! He's small for life, and won't grow any bigger. Besides, aren't cats supposed to meow, and aren't you cats, not birds?"

Happy looked furious and Charle looked offended. "They're not cats," Lucy said quickly, trying to get everyone calm again, "They're Exceeds. It's hard to explain, but there are others like them that can also fly and talk. They're a completely different breed, they're even from another world, just like you guys."

"Yeah, " Al said, "I remember the other girl, the one in the pink skirt, said something about 'this world'. Are you trying to tell us that we're in another universe?"

Lucy sighed. She didn't really get this either, but she should probably at least try and explain to them.

"Okay," she said after a moment, "apparently, there are infinite worlds out there, with infinite possibilities. Sometimes, portals between different worlds open and allow people through. Charlene, that's the girl in pink, thinks that Roy came through by accident, and you guys all followed."

For a moment, it was silent (save the guys fighting in the background, Erza and Hawkeye still glaring daggers at each other, and Charlene surveying the group) and it was soon becoming awkward. Then, Winry groaned.

"Honestly, why is it that _we_'_re _always the ones that weird things happen to? Can't we go one year, _one year, _without having something like this happen?"

Al laughed good-naturedly, "Aw, c'mon Winry. It's kinda fun, don't you think?" She sighed and smiled, not saying anything in return.

At the other end of the top of the sand dune, Charlene huffed and blew a stray piece of hair out of her face, narrowly avoiding an icy punch.

_Why do they feel the need to fight all the time? _She thought bitterly. _Well, it could be a lot worse..._

She looked around and surveyed the group. Wendy, Lucy, Happy and Charle were comfortably conversing with Mai, Al, Winry and Xiao Mai. She had expected that those people would probably be the calm ones and start conversing first.

Erza and Hawkeye were still glaring at each other, not sure what to make of their near-doppleganger. Charlene sighed. She had expected this, to some extent. She knew that Riza and Erza were very much alike, and she hoped that they would become friends. But that seemed like it might be a little too high of an expectation. Friendly acquaintances, if she was lucky. Which she never was.

Then, there were the boys. She was dreaming in technicolor if she thought that Gray and Roy would get along. She had known that they would be a little hostile towards each other, but she had hoped that by the time that Rot arrived, she could have acquainted everyone.

She wasn't surprised at all that it was Natsu and Gray who had started the fight. What was she to expect? Then, unsurprisingly, the Colonel had been dragged in, and Ed had jumped in soon after that. It was strange; the fight contained the same familiar easiness and comfort as the brawls in Fairy Tail, but also had a sense of ferocity and anger. If Charlene had to guess, she'd say that the familiarity and friendliness would be coming from Ed and Mustang, and Natsu and Gray. The four boys: two alchemists and two Mages, fought the opposite with that anger. But it was hard to read the four, mixing around and feeling so many emotions...

She groaned. These people were crazy.

She decided that she should probably stop the fight before it got worse. Usually, Erza or Riza would jump in and put an end to it (even though both had somewhat different tactics), but the two were still occupied with glaring at the other.

So, Charlene stepped forwards, arms out, saying as calmly as she could, "Okay, guys, you've had your fun. Now let-" she was cut off by a piece of ice hitting her forehead. _Of course, _she thought bitterly, _they start using magic as soon as I step in to stop it. _

"Hey, watch it Stripper!" Natsu yelled, noticing how a piece of Gray's Ice Lance had hit Charlene straight in the face, "You just hit someone with your stupid ice!"

"That's the point of this, Flame Brain!" Gray yelled back, leaving himself open for Ed to transmute the ground beneath him into a rock fist and punch him in the face.

"Hey," Ed said with a grin, "I should do this more often!" He was about to attempt another punch, but was promptly stopped when Roy pulled the same trick on him.

"You're rusty, FullMetal." Roy said calmly. Ed was about to yell back at him, when Natsu interrupted and punched Mustang in the gut, his fist on fire.

The boys continued on like so, and the group of calmly talking people were starting to get a little worried. Riza and Erza still weren't paying any attention. Which was a good thing for the fighting boys; it was bad enough that both parties had to deal with one of them, but _both! _They may be stupid at times, but they weren't suicidal.

Magic was flying everywhere, and Charlene was getting very annoyed. She tried asking them politely to stop several more times, but either kept getting interrupted or ignored. She had had enough, however, when Natsu or Roy (it was getting hard to tell, what with all of the dust and magic flying around) had lit her skirt on fire.

After a quick douse with sand that she turned into water, and she quickly expanded the fabric using her magic so it looked good as new, she rounded on them. The other groups had noticed her, and all simultaneously decided that her glare was definitely up there with Erza's _You Smooshed My Cake _glare, Hawkeye's _You Moron, I'm Not Your Babysitter_, Lucy's _I've Had a Bad Day And You're Bothering Me, _and Winry's _What Did You Do To My Precious Auto_-_mail? _The boys, still fighting, hadn't noticed her, and thus angered her more.

After a moment of her glaring, she stomped her foot, making four round, perfectly smooth pits. She pushed winds in different directions, pushing each of the boys into a different pit. She then raised the piece of the earth that she was standing on so that she could see all four of them.

"Listen, you morons," she hissed angrily, glaring at each of the boys in the pits, "I _specifically _asked that there be no fighting. And what did you do?" After a moment of silence, she asked louder, with more anger, "_And what did you do?_"

"Fight." They said grumpily, like school-children getting scolded. The others, however, found it quite amusing.

"Now," she said angrily, "How about you four talk like adults," at this, she glared at Mustang, who grumbled under his breath, "And _not _destroy anything!"

After a mumbling of agreement, she sighed, lowering her dais and raising the ground on which the four boys was seated on. The four boys looked amazed at what she did as their pits disappeared as if they didn't exist. Except Natsu. His motion sickness had kicked in. Ed noticed and laughed. "Are you kidding? You're _sick_?"

Natsu grumbled as he struggled to get up. "I have motion sickness, bastard."

"But sick from a piece of _earth? _That really sucks." Ed thought back to what he was doing before Hawkeye had called them in to look for the Colonel. Ed had been halfway back to Risembool from his west-ward travels. In order to get anywhere, he needed to take a from of vehicle. Ed smirked to himself. This guy was weak.

"Alright!" Charlene yelled, sensing the tensions growing again. "Let's get the basics out of the way. My name is Charlene. I use magic. You guys are from another universe and somehow stumbled into this one. My friends here use magic, too."

The Amestrians looked surprised and confused. Ed glared and pointed a finger at Charlene.

"How do we know that you're telling the truth? For all we know, you guys could be one of the hostile border countries."

"Well, think about it," Charlene said somewhat impatiently, "I can sure as heck tell you that none of us from this world use anything even close to Alchemy. Well, apart from a few specific types of magic, like Gray's. The fashion is completely different, but you still speak the same language. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would say that you were most likely not too close to any border when you crossed over to our world, yes?" For a moment, it was silent as everyone processed what she just said.

It was Ed who spoke first. "Okay, well I guess that that makes sense. But it's just so...so _strange. _Even for us."

Everyone laughed somewhat tensely, still not quite used to the news and the new company.

"Well," Charlene said, trying to loosen the tensions. It wasn't working. "Why don't up we start with introductions? I already introduced myself, so tell us a little bit about yourselves."

"I feel like I'm back in kindergarten," Ed grumbled. Gray snorted, and the two shared a strange look; a little bit of understanding, though confused.

"I'll go first!" Natsu yelled, "I'm Natsu Dragneel, a member of Fairy Tail!" Excited, Natsu thrust his fist into the air, flames licking his knuckles. "And this is my pal, Happy!" At this, Happy leaped up into the air and yelled "Aye Sir!" The Amestrians were still a little surprised and worried about his magic. Was he not affected by the flames? And a talking cat...

"Um," Mai asked nervously, shuffling her feet, "Doesn't that fire hurt you?"

Natsu laughed. "Nah, I'm a Fire Dragon Slayer! Fire doesn't bother me, in fact, I love it!" Natsu grinned happily, which made the others' shoulders relax a little bit.

"And, the cat talks..." Ed mumbled, staring at it angrily. It seemed like a Chimera. Granted, a good one, but still too human and yet far too animal at the same time. It reminded him of a little girl back home and her big white dog...

"I'm an Exceed!" Happy said proudly, suddenly sprouting wings and flying over to the busty blonde. Ed smiled nervously, deciding that since they didn't have alchemy, they didn't have chimeras. And, this thing seemed so sure of itself and in control, unlike other humanoid Chimeras.

"Immune to fire, hmm?" Mustang mumbled, still fixated on the pink haired boy. Natsu heard him and nodded, still grinning. Smirking slightly, the Colonel snapped his fingers, sending an explosion of flames straight at Natsu.

"Roy!" Riza screeched, glaring at him. She looked like she was about to shoot him, when she was interrupted by Natsu.

"Man, this fire is good! Almost as good as charcoal." The Amestrians looked over to see Natsu, calmly stuffing the flames in his mouth and _eating them._

"Wha- but, why, how, just-" Roy stuttered, completely and utterly taken by surprise. He knew that he was immune, but able to eat it? Is this what magic was?

"Stop it Natsu! You're scaring them!" Lucy cried, sensing the otherworlders' distress.

"How?" He asked innocently, "It's not like I'm hurt or anything..."

"That's the problem here, Flame Brain. Normally, people get burned when they spontaneously combust!"

"Shut up, Ice Idiot! It's not my fault that they're not used to someone eating fire."

"Both of you, knock it off!" Erza demanded. Both boys immediately answered with an over-enthusiastic "Aye Sir!", apparently mimicking Happy.

Erza sighed in slight annoyance, then turned to the others. "I'm Erza Scarlet, also a member of Fairy Tail. It's a pleasure to meet you." The Amestrians nodded, still not quite sure how she had made the two boys stop bickering with six simple words.

"What kind of magic do you do?" Winry asked politely.

Erza smiled slyly. "I'm a Re-quip Mage, which means that I can change my weapons and my armour to boost my abilities."

"Woah," Al said excitedly, "Can we see?"

"Sure, why not?" Suddenly, light flashed around her, covering her body. After a moment, the light died and she stood in (rather revealing) red armour, had twin pigtails, and a strange looking red spear. Gone were her shorts and bikini top (it was far too hot for her regular armour). "This is my Flame Empress Armour," she explained, thrusting the spear in Mustang's direction.

He tensed, noticing very much that her face was set in that determined look he so often saw in Riza. "Care to try me, Flame Alchemist?" Roy smiled and nodded, snapping his fingers again, sending red at the red woman. He had absolutely no idea of what she was going to do next, and he was a little excited to find out.

In a flash, she swept her spear through the flames and they evaporated. She stabbed her spear into the ground, then requipped back to her previous outfit, the armour and spear magically disappearing in a golden light.

"She cut right through the flames..." Ed muttered. Al nodded beside him, awed by this power.

"That was very impressive Erza," Wendy said sweetly, "Though you may have frightened them a bit." She turned and beamed at the Amestrians. "I'm Wendy Marvel, and this is Charle. We're both members of Fairy Tail."

"And I'm also an Exceed, in case you were wondering." The cat, sorry, Exceed named Charle huffed.

"Um, how many of you are there?" Mai asked politely, staring at Charle with innocent curiosity.

"Well, there's a whole race not too far from where we live, and there's a friend of ours who's also in the guild," Charle explained. She was uncharacteristically polite. But, something about Mai reminded her of Wendy...

"That's cool", Al smiled, "and what magic do you do Wendy?"

"Oh," Wendy said, shuffling her feet, "I'm a Sky Dragon Slayer."

"So, you're like Natsu then?" Riza asked.

"Sort of. It's the same style of magic, but mine is more support magic and healing magic than anything." Wendy explained.

"I see..." Riza said simply.

"I'm Lucy," Lucy jumped in, wanting to keep the conversation going. Everyone was getting more and more comfortable with each other, and a slight nod from Charlene encouraged her to keep going. "And I'm the Celestial Spirit Mage of Fairy Tail."

"Celestial Spirit..?" Winry asked, "You mean, like the spirits of the stars?"

Lucy nodded, "Mm-hmm. Exactly. I can call forth the spirits of the heavens to aid me."

"She makes it sound so fancy and cool..." Natsu snickered.

"Yeah, even though they're all weirdos, especially Lucy..." Happy whispered back.

"I'm right here!" Lucy hissed, glaring at them, "And don't insult my spirits!" Then she turned around back to face the others, pulled out a silver key and thrust it into the air in front of her. "Open, gate of the Little Dog; Nikola!" A yellow circle appeared, and there was a noise like a doorbell, then a bright light.

It dimmed after a moment and, standing where the circle had been, was a...dog?

"Pun-puun!" It said happily, wobbling on two legs.

"Everybody," Lucy said, picking up the dog (?), "Meet Plue! He's one of my spirits!" Riza softened at the sight of Plue.

"Aw! He's so cute!" Winry said, standing beside Lucy and stroking Plue's head. "So, how'd you do that, anyway?" She asked, still petting Plue.

"It my keys," Lucy explained, "I channel my energy to my keys and I can summon sprints from another world."

"Oh," Winry said, looking slightly disappointed. "is _anything _here mechanical?"

"Nope," Happy said cheekily, munching on a fish, "Pretty much everything here is run by magic. There's no real need for mechanics."

"No...mechanics..." Winry mumbled. Ed saw her hand twitch, longing for her weapon of choice that seemed to be pulled out of thin air; _the wrench. _

In a flash, Ed was there, an arm over her shoulders, trying to get her off of the topic. "Hey now," he said nervously, "I'm sure that there's _something _here. And, worst comes to worst, you could always experiment with automail. You never know, this magic thing opens up a lot of do-" he stopped when he noticed the evil look on her face. _Oh no, _he thought, _why did I say that she could experiment with automail? I_'_m dead..._

"So," he said, trying to get someone else to talk, "What about your power Gray? Haven't seen that yet..."

Gray laughed, "So I'm your _Get Out Of Jail Free _card? Ha, okay. How about I give you a small demonstration?" Before anyone could say anything, Gray thrust his left fist into his right palm. After a moment of frosty light and fog coming from his hands, he spread them to reveal a small object made of ice; the symbol that each of the Fairy a tail members had on their bodies. "I use Ice-Make Magic, which means that I can create ice into any form that I want."

"What's that symbol?" Mai asked politely, staring at it in awe. Gray went over to her and bent down so that he was eye level with her. He held out his hand, offering the ice figurine to her. She took it, and looked at it thoughtfully. It was already starting to melt, but it was very well sculpted.

"It's our guild symbol," Gray explained patiently. "And what's your name? Do you do any magic?"

Mai shuffled a bit, Xiao Mai yawned on her shoulder. "My name is Mai Chang, seventeenth daughter of the late Emperor of Xing. And I'm an alchestress." She stood up a little straighter when she said the last bit.

"Alchestress?" Wendy asked quietly, "What's that?"

Mai smiled, "An alchestress is someone who performs alchestry, which is like alchemy, but mostly used for healing."

Wendy's eyes lit up. "You do healing magic too?" Almost immediately, the two girls were talking about the differences between their abilities, and what they could or could not do.

Winry laughed. "How cute. Anyway, I'm Winry. I don't really have any abilities, but I _love _automail!" She got a dreamy, far-off look in her eyes, apparently daydreaming about automail.

"Yes," Erza said, "I've heard you say that word a few times. But what exactly is automail?"

"Oh," Ed said, bending down and lifting up his left pant leg, "This is automail."

The Fairies stared in awe. His leg seemed to be made completely of metal.

"It's unlike any other prosthetic," Winry said dreamily, "it connects the nerves so that you can move it like a real limb! And it's made of reinforced steel, so it's almost impossible to break!" Then she scowled at Ed, who smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his head, looking anywhere but at Winry or his leg. "But, you somehow always end up breaking it anyway."

"It's not my fault! It's not like I ask for guys to beat me up!" Al looked like he wanted to say something, and opened his mouth to do so, then apparently decided against it and closed his mouth.

Natsu laughed loudly. "What?" Winry asked, slightly irritated, "What's so funny?"

"Nothin'", Natsu said, grinning childishly, "I just wouldn't let Gajeel anywhere near him." Natsu then burst into chuckles and his guild members rolled their eyes.

"Anyways," Ed said, turning away from Winry, "'I'm Edward Elric, but you guys can call me Ed. I'm an alchemist."

Al smiled and waved, "And I'm his brother, Alphonse, but my friends call me Al. I'm also an alchemist."

"What exactly are alchemists anyway?" Natsu asked, crossing his arms. Apparently he didn't think that his "Gajeel" joke wasn't as funny anymore.

"Well," Ed said, "Alchemy is the science of understanding, deconstructing and reconstructing matter. But-"

"Just show him, FullMetal!" Snapped Roy, "He's not going to listen to your spiel."

Ed glowered and rolled his eyes, but slapped his hands together, making a noise louder than usual. Then he thrust them to the ground. Blue lightning crackled around him, stirring up dust. After it died down, Ed held a small, stone object in his hands. "Couldn't do much, since it has to be equal, but here," he tossed the stone to Natsu, who caught it easily. He looked at it then laughed.

"I see you're warming up to Fairy Tail!" He held up the stone, which was an almost exact replica of Gray's ice figurine.

"Well," Mustang said with a smirk, "The other locals that I've met have been less than friendly, so I can take what I can get. I'm Colonel Mustang, by the way."

"Ah," Ed said smiling, "You're not a part of any military here. Stop with the formalities."

The colonel bristled. "Fine," he said curtly, "I'm Roy. _Colonel,_" he put emphasis on the last part and glared at Ed, who simply looked in the other direction, pretending not to notice anything, "Roy Mustang. I'm also an alchemist, as you may have guessed. But, I specialize in a different form of alchemy; Flame Alchemy."

"That would explain why I had a hard time fighting you," Gray said thoughtfully, "You weren't even using any sort of magic. I guess that I was so focused on that that I wasn't able to see if your 'alchemy' had any weaknesses."

"And usually, it does," Roy said proudly, "But that does not apply to me. See, you need a transmutation circle, much like the ones that you used before. If the circle is broken, then the transmutation can it be performed."

Ed nodded, "Yeah, that's how I almost beat him. I used my alchemy to turn my metal arm into a blade, then cut his glove where the circle was stitched, therefore breaking it and rendering his alchemy useless."

"Your metal arm...?" Lucy asked, "But it doesn't..." She looked down at Ed's bare hands, both of which seemed to be made of flesh. Though one was slightly paler than the other.

Ed grabbed his upper right arm, a dark expression on his face, "It's a long story..." He muttered. The Fairies and Charlene all shared a look. They all had their fair share of "long stories", and they knew that they weren't always fun to tell.

"What about you," Erza asked politely, an edge of unease in her voice as she turned to her not-quite-doppleganger. "Who are you?"

"My name is Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye. I am not an alchemist, alchehestress, or mechanic."

"What do you do then?" Natsu asked.

Without saying a word, Riza grabbed a coin in her pocket, tossed it up into the air and raised her gun.

_**BANG! **_She picked up the coin, the gun smoking slightly from the shot, and tossed it to Erza.

She caught it and looked at it curiously. Then she smiled. "I see, your skills lie in weapons. You have excellent aim." Erza held up the coin for everyone to see, and the Fairies were very impressed. She had managed a shot through the very centre of the coin which was about half a centimetre wide.

The others stared in awe, but Riza seemed unmoved. "Thank you," then, almost as an afterthought, she added "Erza."

"Alrighty then!" Charlene said suddenly, clapping her hands. So far, everything had gone okay. Sure, at the beginning it looked like they were about to enter an all-out brawl, but now things seemed to have calmed down. "Now that everyone is comfortable with each other, I think that it's safe to say that we can bring them back to the guild an-"

"**_WHAT?_**" Was everyone's initial reaction. _Oh bother, _Charlene thought, _and just as things were going so well too._

"Charlene," it was Erza who spoke first, "Is it really wise to have people from two different worlds in one place?"

"Yeah," Lucy added, "And wouldn't that create a paradox of some sort?"

"Actually," Charlene said patiently, only to be interrupted by Ed.

"And we would really prefer if we went home as soon as possible."

"Uh," Al interjected, "no offence." Ed just waved his hand dismissively.

"Whatever. See, we were kind of in the middle of something back home."

Winry nodded, lifting up her suitcase, "And I was kind of in the middle of designing and building a new prototype of automail. I had to drop everything to come here."

"Tch," Ray said irritably, "Let's no forget that I am _still _cleaning up the mess that Amestris has made. We've finally managed to negotiate something with the Ishvalans, but there's still so much left to do."

"And I may or may not be assisting in running a country," Mai said shyly. "In fact, Emperor Ling is expecting me back any moment now..."

"Look-" Charlene tried again, only to be ignored once more.

"And I don't think that Master would appreciate any extra reason for fights," Wendy said politely, "Or the extra destruction and firepower."

"I say let's fight em all we want!" Natsu said with a grin, "Let them come to the guild! It'll be fun!"

"But Natsu," Happy said, a slight worrying tone to his voice, "More people means more mouths to feed. Which means less food. And since they don't have the money, they're gonna have to get all of their meals at the guild. **For free!**"

Natsu gasped dramatically, "What? No, that can't happen! Go home, and stop stealing our food!"

"Aye sir!"

"Honestly," Charle sighed.

"Can it, Coal for Brains, they're not going to the guild, and they're not going to steal _our_ food." Gray said irritably, putting emphasis on "our", hoping that it would get through the idiot's thick skull that not all food belonged to him.

"Um, actually-" Charlene tried again.

"What did ya say, Stripper!"

"I'm not a- ah _crap!_" Gray hurried to put on his pants while the Amestrian boys tried to cover their girls' eyes.

"See!" Ed said, "We don't want to deal with this! We just want to go home."

"Well, **_YOU CANT GO HOME! _**" Charlene yelled, effectively catching everyone's attention. She calmed herself with a breath, then smoothed out her skirt. She then looked at everyone in front of her in turn. "It's perfectly fine to have people from two different worlds in one place. Nothing bad happens unless they physically cause it. No paradoxes. That's part of the reason why stuff like this happens so often; it mostly has little to no damage or aftermath, and really no effect on the environment. No one bothers to stop it. Second, you cannot go home. The portal has disappeared, and I cannot find one nearby right now. Also, I don't have to power to create one, so you're stuck here for a while. Don't worry," she added, upon seeing their angry and crestfallen faces, "you won't be here long. Portals are always appearing. We'll find one soon. And Elrics, you can return to whatever you were doing when you get back. Winry, as Ed said earlier, this magic could really help with automail and give you some great new ideas. Roy and Riza, there are others assisting you in your mission to clean up the country. I'm sure that they'll understand if you slack off for a week. Mai, Emperor Ling is perfectly capable of running the country for himself for a little while. Now, we will be heading to Fairy Tail, where our new friends will _not _devour our food supplies (at this she shot a glare at Natsu), and will _not _destroy the universe. Now, are we clear?"

Everyone looked like they disagreed with the plan, but it's not like they could argue. After all, if Charlene was educated in the multiverse, then she would have no reason to lie about the portals. It was obvious that she had no master plan, and being in the company of other humans seemed to make her uncomfortable. Her logic and arguments were really intelligent and made them all sound like whining children who wanted to go home.

After no one disagreed with her, Charlene huffed and turned on her heel, heading towards the nearest town to catch a train. "Good," she said, not looking back. She could feel all of the irritated auras following her, "Now we can catch a train and head back to Magnolia."

Natsu groaned and muttered about trains and little blonde girls from Hell.

_Honestly, _Charlene thought bitterly, _Things just went from bad to worse._


	6. Chapter 6 is any idea a good idea

Two Worlds Cross

Chapter 6

_No Idea is A Good Idea_

The ride home was...not exactly as expected, but no one was surprised.

There were four to a booth on the train; two on each side. Natsu, Happy and Lucy sat on one side, while Ed and Winry sat facing them. Happy was curled in Lucy's lap, who was consoling a green-looking Natsu. Winry was looking slightly worried and Ed was laughing.

"Motion sickness? How do you even get around" he asked with a hint of mirth.

"Well," Lucy said sweetly, rubbing Natsu's back, "Most of the time, he just has to grin and bear it."

"Although," Happy said cheekily, "I've hardly ever seen him grin in this state! Well, apart from the time that he went to the girls' changing compartment instead of the bathroom." Happy laughed, while Natsu managed a small, smug smirk, his cheeks painted pink.

Lucy, however, was rather red in the face. "Shut up, Cat! They don't need to hear this!" Lucy stuttered a bit about how they were being mean to her, and Ed and Winry shared a look. They wondered if this is what their friends felt like in the short time that they realized that they had feelings for each other but were too afraid to admit it.

In the seat behind them, Roy and Riza sat beside each other, both looking rather grumpy. They had been hassled by the conductor about their guns. When they tried to explain they were under military authorization and even showed their ID's, the conductor still argued.

"Look," he had said grumpily, "Your uniform and badge ain't like anything I've seen before. Sure not from this country, and I'm afraid that unless you re-quip your guns back, I am going to have to confiscate them."

Roy and Riza had just been about to explain that they didn't even _use _magic, when Erza stepped in, gave the man an evil smile and said, "It's alright. They're with Fairy Tail."

At this the conductor bristled, paled, then stepped aside without another word. The Amestrians weren't quite sure what Fairy Tail would be like, if the mere mention of their name made peoples' blood in cold.

Across from them sat Erza and Gray. Erza and Hawkeye made uneasy conversation with each other, talking about each other's weapons of choice. They still weren't comfortable with the whole "not-quite-look-alike" bit, though.

Gray and Mustang were looking uncomfortably at each other. It's not like they could talk about their magic. Fire and ice. Mage and Alchemist. Military man and questing wizard. Not exactly a whole lot of common topics of interest.

In the booth beside them, Wendy and Charlene sat on one side, with Charle in Wendy's lap. They sat across from Mai and Al, with Xiao Mai on her shoulder. Al, Mai and Wendy were talking about Alchehestry and Sky Magic, and the pros and cons with each. Charle and Xiao Mai were staring uneasily at each other, not quite sure what to make of the other species. Meanwhile, Charlene stared out the window, feeling squished. She didn't take trains a lot, considering they took money which she didn't bother herself with. Everything she needed she could make. And now she was seated with several other people in a closed compartment, smooshed up against the window (even though Wendy took up almost no room at all), staring at the world zooming by.

It hadn't been this bad in the car, since she had had something to concentrate on and worry about. Now, her mind was pre-occupied with what would happen at the guild and the mass of bodies that surrounded her, boxing her in.

She looked around at the people travelling with her. Her... "_Friends_".

She laughed silently to herself and continued staring out the window. She hadn't had a decent conversation with someone other than interrogating them or asking for directions, let alone _friends. _She didn't have friends. Not for many, many years...

Meanwhile, the other conversations were going fairly smoothly.

"So," Lucy asked Winry, "How did you come across this auto-mechanics?"

"Auto-mail," she corrected politely, "And actually, my parents were doctors, and my grandma is an auto-mail mechanic. I learned everything I know from them. Oh, and Garfiel, he took me in as his apprentice."

"That's really cool," Lucy chirped brightly, "so how exactly does it work?"

Immediately, Winry's eyes lit up, and she smiled, slapping her hands together close to her face, which was now flushed with joy.

"Oh no," Ed muttered sarcastically, "Here we go."

Fortunately for Ed, his comment had gone unnoticed by Winry, who had now begone a spiel about the technology of auto-mail. "Well, it's made of re-inforced steel, so it's difficult to break," at this, she shot a glance at Ed, who shrugged innocently (hah!). "But _someone _always manages to figure out a way to ruin its beauty and come crawling back to me for repairs. Thankfully though, this someone is still very well respected in the military and gets paid well. So, Granny, Den and I can eat all we want! Anyways-"

"Wait a minute," Lucy interrupted, "You're a part of the military? And who's Den?"

"Oh," Ed said, rubbing the back of his neck, "It's a long story. But basically I used to be an alchemist. I enrolled as a State Alchemist, where you work for the military and get paid well, so long as you show your yearly research. Anyway, since I couldn't do Alchemy anymore, I couldn't be a State Alchemist. But, since I had assisted somewhat in saving the country, they made an exception. Now I travel the continent, digging up what I can find about alchemy or other similar studies. I just have to hand in my notes on time."

"I see," Lucy said, nodding, "But what about Den? And what do you mean you mean, 'you assisted somewhat in saving the country'?"

Winry laughed. "Well the first part's easy. Den is my dog. Here," she dug around in her purse that she carried with her, pulling out a brown wallet. She took out a picture and give it to Lucy.

Happy, who had been drifting off, sat up and looked at the picture in Lucy's hand. The picture showed three children; two golden haired boys that looked suspiciously like the two brothers, and a young blonde girl with blue eyes. Standing off to the side slightly was a small old lady with her hair up in a strange bun, smoking on a pipe. The young girl was laying on a black and white dog that had a metal left front paw. They were all standing in front of a lovely two-storey farmhouse, with a sign out front that said**_Rockbell Auto_**-_**Mail. **_Everyone in the picture seemed genuinely happy.

"Is this," Lucy said softly, "you guys when you were little?"

Winry nodded, while both her and Ed were smiling, as if remembering the good old days. "Yeah. That's my grandma there with us. And that's our farmhouse."

"Where are your parents?" Lucy asked, wishing almost immediately that she hadn't.

Ed and Winry's faces darkened. "My parents were sent to the war going on at the time, since there weren't enough doctors," Winry explained, "They were killed while they were there."

"And my mom died of a horrible sickness that swept the country," Ed croaked, "Dad had left just before that, and we've only just met him again this past year. He died peacefully, in front of my mother's grave. Granny was the one that found him actually."

"I'm so sorry," Lucy said, "I know how you guys feel."

"Really?" Winry asked, amazed. "You mean..?"

"Yeah." Lucy's voice suddenly had an undertone of sadness to it, and Natsu immediately perked up, his face full of concern. "My mom died when I was a little girl. My father and I never had the best relationship, but we're still working on it."

Sensing her distress, Natsu put an arm around Lucy's shoulder. "Never knew my brith parents," Natsu said solemnly. "My adoptive dad went missing about seven years ago."

Ed laughed without humour, "Looks like we all have sob stories to tell. But Natsu, what was your adoptive dad like?"

Natsu smiled, his motion sickness returning now. He hunched over and was barely able to talk, so the others had to strain their ears. "Well, he was really nice. Taught me all of my magic. He was really gentle, and he loved humans."

"Well good thing," Ed laughed, "'Cuz then he wouldn't like himself."

Natsu looked at him as if he had gone a little crazy. "What?"

"Well he's a human isn't he? Why would he hate humans if he is one?"

Lucy mumbled something like "Wait until you guys meet Porlyusica," but Ed and Winry didn't know what that had to do with anything.

Natsu grumbled something incoherent. "Wha-" Ed started to ask, when Happy smiled and said,

"He said 'Igneel wasn't a human; he was a dragon'. Oh, and he liiiiiiikes Lucy."

Winry and Ed were too shocked to laugh, but Lucy's face flushed pink and she snarled "Shut up, stupid cat!" while Natsu grumbled his objection.

"Are you serious?" Ed asked, leaning forward, "You were raised by a dragon?"

Lucy nodded, having successfully captured Happy and now held him in a headlock, said "Uh-huh. As were Wendy and Gajeel. Don't worry, it freaked me out too when I first found out."

The five of them continued their conversation, asking about each others' childhood.

Meanwhile, Erza and Riza were still chatting somewhat tensely.

"Does anyone with magic in this world use guns?" Riza asked.

"Actually," Erza replied evenly, "Yes. There are two Mages back at Fairy Tail who are top-notch gun-slingers. One of them, Bisque, uses re-quip magic like me, but with guns. The other one, Alzak, uses magical guns with magic bullets that have different purposes. I don't know a whole lot about it, you'll have to ask them when we arrive."

Riza nodded. "I see... By the way, what exactly is 're-quip'? I saw you do it earlier, but frankly I don't understand."

"Well, you see," Erza started, "There is an empty alternate dimension that I can access..." She proceeded to explain her magic, while Riza listened thoughtfully. Meanwhile, Gray and Roy were still staring uneasily at each other.

"So," Gray finally managed, "You're a part of the military. What's that like?"

Roy snorted. "Well, for one, it's not for the faint of heart. We've had to do some terrible things, back when the government was corrupted."

Gray sighed and leaned back, "We know what you mean. Our government, the magic council, had some, uh," he paused, and glanced at Erza who either was oblivious or pretended not to notice, "_not nice _people who had infiltrated the council at the time. They were influencing decisions, and probably would've successfully taken over the world, had we not intervened. But that's old news, and everything's fine now. Well, most of the council are complete dicks, but whatever."

Roy laughed, "Yeah, I've met quite a few rude ones in my day. But I've made plenty of friends throughout my years in the military." Almost subconsciously, he glanced over at Riza, who was talking with Erza animatedly about the guild's cake.

Gray chuckled to himself. Roy turned at him and glared. "What?"

"Oh," Gray said easily, shrugging and pretending to look innocent, "It's just seems that you and the Lieutenant seem to be more than friends." Gray smirked and wiggled his eyebrows.

Roy scowled and blushed slightly, "I would watch it if I were you..."

At the same time, Alphonse had asked Wendy about the guild. "What's it like?" He had wondered aloud, leaning forward. Mai and Xiao Mai leaned forward as well, anticipating the answer.

"Well," Wendy said, fiddling with Charle's bow, "They're very friendly, and very nice most of the time. The Master is very warm and friendly, though a little strange at times." At this, Charlene scoffed, turning her attention to the conversation. She didn't say anything, and Wendy continued, "The bartender, Mirajane is very lovely and makes good food. I've heard that she can be pretty scary, but I've never seen her like that, so I wouldn't know personally." Charlene shuddered inwardly, remembering the dark aura of pure evil that was lying underneath a thick layer of joy and sweetness. How those two traits could belong in one aura, not even she was sure. "And they're all, well, a little..." She seemed to be searching for the right word when Charlene laughed.

"Crazy?" She offered. She laughed again, starting to feel slightly more comfortable on the train now. "I'm not even _in _Fairy Tail and I know that much. Heck, I've barely known you guys for a day!"

"Wait," Mai said in a confused tone, "I don't understand... Are you not a part of the guild?"

Charlene was surprised, and it showed. She had never, in all her time in this universe, spent enough time with a group of people to even be thought of as a part of them. She was an introvert, a hermit. She didn't hang around with humans. _I guess that I should be moving on soon,_ she thought to herself, _before I get too attached. These are good people. Crazy, yes, but good. I don't want them getting hurt._

"W-well," she managed to stutter out, "No. I just came yesterday after a run-in with Gray and Mustang. I usually don't hang around with humans too much, so this is weird for me. I'll be gone once you guys are back home safely though."

Wendy looked sad at that, while Al, Mai and Charle looked slightly surprised. "You're leaving?" Wendy pitted, shooting Charlene a sad puppy-dog face with big, watery brown eyes, a pouted lip, sad, arched eyebrows. It didn't help that her aura was sad and cute too. Charlene almost wondered how hard she was trying to achieve this look, but she knew that she wasn't trying at all. She was just showing how sad and hopeful she looked.

"I never planned on staying," Charlene grunted, putting up her walls again, shutting off emotions. Suddenly she stood up and slid past them and out the door, where she stood on the platform, taking in the fresh air as the country whisked by.

She sighed. She had worked so hard to become what she had. For so long she'd tried and tried to get her inner emotions to leave her, to no avail. After so many years, she'd finally done it. And now, those feelings were coming back, a brick falling out of the walls that she had worked so hard to build with every smile that was shot her way by these people. She groaned, massaging her forehead with her left palm. How had she let things get this far? She had a job to do, a very important one that couldn't be left to anyone else, no matter how badly she wished. And she was wishing harder than ever before, looking back at the door. It had been left open a crack, and she could hear the sounds of chatter, sense the happy auras. She wished more than ever before that she didn't have this job. That she was allowed to have emotions and friends and lovers-

_No. _She thought sternly, pushing the mental image of a grinning boy out of her mind, _These people are getting too close for comfort. No amount of wishing is going to accomplish anything. It's bad enough that they're getting me to feel emotions now, but things from the past... If this happens again I'm leaving. I burned that bridge and I'm not going back to fix it anytime soon. I have a job to do, and that job includes bing here and now. Once they've gone back home, I cut my ties. I'll move on, just like I always do. And I'll deal with it, just like I always have. _But for some reason, Charlene found that she wasn't quite ready to go back inside yet, with all of the laughter and happiness. She was taking a lot longer to compose herself than should be needed. Yet she couldn't make herself go in just yet, finding herself wondering if any of her ideas were good ones...


	7. Chapter 7 The Guild: Part 2

**Hello my honeys! How are you all doing, hm? Well, I must sincerely apologize for this chapter taking so long. I'm sorry, really, but I have been crazy busy with a lot of stuff on the go. High school is hard, and I'm only in ninth grade! But, it's finally March Break which means that I actually have some spare time on my hands. Please enjoy this long chapter, my sweets! *cackles while riding away on a broomstick into the backdrop of a pale full moon***

Chapter 7

The Guild, Part 2.

By the time that they arrived back in Magnolia, everyone had gotten used to each other. Of course, someone would say something that left the others confused every once in a while, but each party was starting to figure the other out.

When the Amestrians stepped off of the train, they were in awe. The people were wearing clothes similar to their style back home, but there were so many variations that it was impossible to describe it perfectly. When they walked past the market place, they saw amazing food that didn't exist in their world. All of the streets were white cobblestone, which were fairly clean for such a busy town. All of the houses were cute and small, with white walls and pastel roofs and accents.

"Looks kind of like Risembool..." Ed muttered, ogling at the buildings as they passed them. None were too big, except what seemed to be a church, spiralling up in front of them as they got closer to the centre of town.

"Yeah," said Al distractedly, half in a trance, staring at the magic and the strange goods that were being bought and sold on the street as if they were apples. "But a lot bigger."

"And louder," Winry commented, smiling at the bustling rhythm of shoppers, commuters, travellers, and locals.

"And a lot less sheep," Roy grumbled, getting a slight elbow to the rib from Riza.

"I'm glad you like it!" Lucy said, smiling at them. "Magnolia is a really good place to live and the people are so nice!"

"They seem like it," Mai said happily, whipping her head back and forth at all of their Chis. Xiao Mai nodded in agreement.

"Woah," Al gasped as the church that they had seen above the rooftops appeared before them.

"A church..." Winry muttered.

"Yes," Erza said proudly, "This is the Cardia Cathedral. It, along with Fairy Tail, is what makes Magnolia so popular. Many important events happened here..." Her eyes suddenly got a far away look in them, as if recalling old times

Natsu grinned and pointed to the roof. "See that burnt part over there? And that scratched bit that looks like it's torn?"

The Amestrians all craned their necks to see. "Yeah," Ed said, "What about it? Did something happen?"

Natsu laughed. "Yeah! That's where I fought Laxus when he went wild not too long ago."

"Gajeel helped too, you know." Gray said accusatively.

Natsu snorted. "Yeah right. I didn't need his help."

"Really?" Erza asked, raising an eyebrow, "Because from what I can remember, you were just as equally bandaged up as he was." She gave him a dangerous look and he shrank away with an "aye"

"But," Winry started, "Surely you would've gotten into trouble for the damage, especially if it's permanent and on such a big and famous landmark!"

"Well more stuff happened here, making it more exciting!" Happy piped up.

"But," Lucy said in exasperation, "Yeah, we definitely did have to pay for property damage. We almost always do."

Mai was about to open her mouth to ask just how match damage they caused and how often and why, but decided against it.

The group continued on, with Charlene tagging along in the back, not saying a word. The others had almost forgotten that she was there, apart from Alphonse, Mai, and the Dragon Slayers, as they could sense/smell her. She was only half paying attention, but smiled to herself when she sensed the wondering of the Amestrians. They were thinking about Fairy Tail and their habit of destruction, and she couldn't help but smile and laugh inwardly. They had _no idea _just how much they cost their master. They would be richer than Blue Pegasus, if it hadn't been for the destructive habits of the members. But hey, thats what made them Fairy Tail, what put them apart from the rest of the guilds.

Soon, they arrived that the guild hall, the newcomers staring up in awe. Charlene braced herself for the onslaught of emotions and powerful auras, getting ready for the sudden splitting headache. She was somewhat used to it, having been forced to adapt quicker in worse situations, but it still hurt and she couldn't help but grimace. She hoped that no one noticed, but thankfully they weren't paying any attention to her. Ed, Al, and the others were ogling at the fast-approaching building, while the Fairies were smiling proudly.

When they got to the doors, Gray opened them, showing the travellers the complete and utter chaos that was Fairy Tail. Slowly, everyone inside noticed that their guild mates were back along with some new faces.

Gajeel, who was sitting across from Levy with Pantherlily on the table sipping kiwi juice, sniffed the air, then started walking towards the group at the front of the guild hall. He towered in front of Ed and Winry, brows furrowed in confusion, his nose twitching.

Winry looked up at the dark, wild man with _piercings in lieu of eyebrows _in front of her. He was scary, no doubt about that, and she wondered how he fit in with the rest of Fairy Tail. From what she could tell, the guild was warm and loving and crazy. She looked up into scarlet eyes and wondered if he was any of those traits. Almost subconsciously, she stepped slightly behind Ed, clutching her case in which she stored extra parts. Suddenly, the man leaned down, so that they were eye level. The blue-haired girl and black Exceed who had been sitting with him came up from behind.

"What is it Gajeel?" Asked Pantherlily.

Not answering, he leaned forward a little bit more, sniffing at Winry.

"Hey," Ed warned, but Gajeel wasn't listening. He kept sniffing and earned a screech from Levy. He ignored her too.

Then, when Gajeel was a little too close for comfort and he looked down at her auto-mail case, she snapped. She pulled out her trusted monkey-wrench and smacked him. Hard.

Gajeel backed away with a yelp, rubbing his head. Ed was smiling slyly, as if to say _don't say I didn't warn you. _The girl could hit hard. Usually, he wouldn't mind a wrench to the head. In fact, he would've caught it in his mouth and eaten it. But it had come from nowhere and he hadn't expected her to do anything.

"Gajeel," Levy hissed, "What are you doing?"

Gajeel lifted his hand away from his head, checking to see if there was any blood before answering her. "Tch. The two of them smelled like metal. Really good, different metal that I've never smelled before. Wanna know why."

Winry flushed. She was surprised that he hadn't been that affected by her hit (Ed was feeling envious that he could take that). He only looked slightly hurt and annoyed when a hit like that could've taken down Ed, who had been through much worse. "Well," she cried, "You could have just asked! And if you must know then here!" She set down her case and opened it, showing him all of the bits and pieces inside.

Gajeel's eyes widened, as did Levy's and Pantherlily's. A few of the other members had come to see what the fuss was about and were craning their necks to see.

Gajeel bent down, with Levy standing beside him. He reached in to take a part, when his hand was smacked by a wrench. "Ow," he grumbled, "What the hell?"

"Don't touch!" Winry scolded, "This is very important stuff. I need it."

"What for?" Asked Levy politely.

"This," Ed said, pulling up his left pant leg. He revealed a large pice of metal, maybe a weird shin guard...?

Levy gasped as she realized that his leg was made completely out of metal. He took off his boot as well, to reveal metal toes. They looked like they were just for show. It was impossible to move them, just a part of the leg. And then he wiggled them.

Gajeel turned to him, picking up his leg and examining it. Of course, he did this without warning, sending Ed off balance. "H-hey!" He cried in indignation, waving his arms wildly and trying to get his balance back. Thankfully, Winry steadied him and he leaned on her, glaring at the wild man holding his foot. "What are you doing?"

"Never seen anything like it," Gajeel muttered. He sniffed it. "Not iron. It's stronger...steel? No, it's reinforced. It's really strong, don't know if I could eat it."

Winry was impressed. Obviously this man knew metal, and he seemed more interested as to how the leg worked and it's mechanics than the fact that he had it at all. Ed, however, was not. He felt like he was back in Rush Valley, with everyone fawning over his metal limbs. Thankfully, he had gotten his right arm back, so it wasn't so bad nor obvious, as long as he remembered not to ever wear shorts.

"What do you mean, eat it?" Barked Ed, "Of course you can't eat steel!"

"Well, it's not an 'of course,' per say," Gajeel countered, letting go of the leg and standing up. "I've never had steel before, so I wouldn't know if I could eat it."

"But a human can't eat metal," Mustang countered in confusion, "It's too hard for the teeth."

"And the human body won't be able to digest it," Winry added, "The human body can digest a lot, but not metal. It would be the equivalent to poison. No normal human would be able to."

Gajeel grinned, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a few scrap pieces of iron, "Good thing I'm not a normal human." Then he popped the metal into his mouth and started chewing.

"Hey!" Al yelled, "She just told you that it was pretty much poison and you eat it? Are you trying to prove a point or something?"

"No," Lily said, pinching the bridge of his nose and Levy looking slightly irritated, "He's just being an asshole."

"I'm hungry," Gajeel grumbled around his unusual snack.

"But you aren't disagreeing to the previous point," Levy said sweetly. Gajeel turned and glared at her, but she only smiled innocently back up at him. The travellers were astounded as to how she was able to withstand that frightening expression. They all could probably, but this young, sweet girl would seem the type to cower. Except, after a silent stare-off, Gajeel grunted and turned away while Levy giggled, proud of her small victory.

"Anyway," he grumbled, "I'm Gajeel. And before you get all worked up, I'm an Iron Dragon Slayer, so I can eat metal just fine."

"That's right!" Mai said suddenly. Gajeel turned to her and she smiled up at him. "Natsu mentioned you!"

"Oh," Gajeel said dangerously, turning to Natsu who only grinned cheekily, "Did he now?"

"Nothing rude, I assure you." Riza mused calmly, fingering her gun subconsciously. "Just warned us to keep Ed's leg away from you."

"And who," Gajeel grumbled, turning to face her, "are you people anyway?"

The newcomers didn't flinch. Though this man seemed scary in his own right, they had faced worse. It didn't seem that his strength or gruffness was a bluff; one had only to look at the bulging muscles, multiple piercings, and wild hair. But still, for the alchemists, they could easily transmute iron into something else that would benefit themselves, for Winry and Riza, they had worked with all sorts of metals for years. A little iron didn't scare them.

As the Amestrians and Gajeel held a silent stare-down, Charlene jumped in. "They're from another world! They came here by accident and until a portal opens up, they're staying here with us."

"I was wondering why they smelled different " he muttered.

"So how long exactly will that be?" Came a voice from the back of the crowd. The others parted for Master Makarov. He walked up to them, raised a friendly hand, smiled, and said "Yo. I am the master of this guild, Makarov." The Amestrians gawked at him. Finally, it was Ed who grinned and said with a laugh,

"Ha! You're so small!" Winry smacked him (thankfully her wrench was safely in her still open case).

"You shouldn't be talking! Last time I checked, not too long ago you weren't much bigger!"

"I was not that short!" He countered.

"Well, compared to Alphonse..." Mai muttered. Ed turned and rounded on her. Before he could start, Riza interrupted in a clipped tone.

"It was still rude and it would not do to be impolite to our hosts."

Makarov's smile never wavered and he said in an equally welcoming tone, "My my, you are quite like our Erza." At this, she and Erza bristled and shot a glance at each other, "But don't worry about insulting me. I'm used to hearing about my height. I helped raise these brats, after all." He laughed and so did a bunch of members.

Ed, Al, and Winry shared a look. These were good people and they were already starting to feel plenty at home.

The Amestrians had wound their way through the guild hall, separating and introducing themselves. Erza had introduced Riza to Biska and Alzak, who were now in a conversation about guns, the pros and cons of different types, the preferred ones, etc, etc. Roy was sitting with Romeo, Natsu, Wakaba, and Macao, discussing the different types of fire magic and alchemy. Romeo listened intently, having not yet learned magic. Alphonse and Mai had met the Strauss siblings and were sitting with them along with Lucy. The latter four were talking about the different types of magic, other guilds, and transformation magic, which the two former were amazingly interested in.

"So," asked Al, leaning forward across the table, "You just, _imagine _yourself as something or someone else and you become it?

"Well," Lisanna said, her finger on her chin, "There are a lot of variables too. Like, I wouldn't be able to Take-Over as a beast, like Elfman. For Take-Over Magic, you need to absorb that something into your reservoir, sort of. That's how Mira-nee got her magic; she exorcized a demon and took a part of it into her own body. We came here and they taught her how to use that, and us similar magic."

"I see," Al said, the gears turning.

Mai frowned. "So you use demon Take-Over Magic?"

Mira nodded sweetly. "Yep. It's usually called Satan's Soul Take-Over though."

"No offence or anything," Mai said cautiously, "But you don't exactly seem like a demon."

Lucy laughed. "I've never seen Mira in her Satan's Soul, but I hear that it's terrifying. They used to call her the 'She-Devil', but that was before I joined the guild."

Elfman shuddered, "I knew her back then. She was scary. Still is sometimes." Everyone laughed comfortably.

Meanwhile, Winry and Ed were outside with Gajeel, Levy and Pantherlily.

"So it connects the nerves?" Levy asked with wide eyes.

Winry nodded enthusiastically. Levy wanted to know all about automail, as she had never read nor heard about it before. Winry was using Ed as an example, picking up his leg, having him bend it, walk on it, run, jump. He was not happy at being practically man-handled by his gear-nut girlfriend but kept quiet at the idea of the wrench, which sat on the picnic table at which they sat at, just within finger's reach. Lily was also listening intently, intrigued as to how this worked. Gajeel found his eyes wandering to the open case and Ed's leg. It smelled different than the metal from this world and he was dying to know how it tasted. But that wrench to the head had hurt, more than he let on. He wasn't exactly eager to receive another, even if the metal seemed really tasty...

"It sounds like that would hurt," noted Pantherlily, "Would it not?"

Ed groaned. "You have no idea. Some people describe it like getting the limb cut off again. It hurst like hell, but I can't exactly use that comparison."

"Whaddaya mean?" Gajeel asked, tearing his eyes away from the metals. "How did you lose it?"

"Oh," Ed said, his easiness gone. "Well, my mom died when we were little. Our dad had left us with apparently no intentions of coming back. We were all alone, except for Winry and her grandma. We, that is to say, Alohonse and I, tried to do human transmutation, which is a huge taboo for alchemists. We tried to bring her back. It didn't work, but in the process, I lost my right arm and my left leg, Al his entire body. We got his original body back, as well as my right arm in the end. But I didn't feel my limbs being taken. I just woke up, bleeding and in pain. Winry and her grandma fixed me up and gave me new limbs."

They all sat in silence for a moment. Finally, it was Gajeel who spoke first in a gruff tone, "Well, it sounds like you've been through Hell and back. Can't say I envy you."

Ed was surprised, but then laughed. "You're the first person to act so lax about it! I gotta admit, it's refreshing."

"Glad you think so," Gajeel replied, munching on some spare screws from his pockets and eyeing the spares in the case in front of him, "But don't expect much pity here, we all had shitty pasts."

"So we were told," Winry said softly.

"Yeah," Ed muttered, "What happened?"

"Well," Levy started, "A few years back, there was a huge sickness that took my parents, along with Jet's and Droy's, same with Mira, Lisanna, and Elfman. I think Erza's too. Then there was a rampaging demon in the east- southeast that killed Gray's entire town. There was the Tower of Heaven, which captured millions of people, mostly children, to be made as slaves. Erza was one of them and managed to escape. Cana never knew her father and her mom was taken by the sickness. Lucy's mom died of the same sickness, leaving her with her father, who, uh," she cast a look at Gajeel (which Ed and Winry didn't understand), who pretended not to notice nor care, "she had a _rocky _relationship with. She ran away not too long ago, met Natsu and Happy and was brought here. Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy never knew their birth parents, having been raised by dragons."

"Okay," Winry said in confusion, making a 'time out' motion with her hands, "I have to admit, we were all a little surprised to learn of Natsu's parentage-"

Ed snorted. "A little? The closest thing to a real dragon I've ever encountered was the ourabouros tattoo on the humanculi. A kid being raised by one is a crazy idea!"

"As is the fact of different dimensions and traveling between them," Pantherlily pointed out.

"Touché."

"Well," Winry continued, shooting Ed an annoyed look, "But just exactly how common is it for kids to be raised by dragons in this world?"

"We're the only three," Gajeel said with a proud smirk.

"Yeah," Levy added, "And the reason why we don't really communicate with other nations is because they don't use magic like us. A few small border countries do, only because they're exposed to us, but we stay away from them. Dragons used to rule the world, many years ago. I don't know what happened, but they retreated to the continent, especially Fiore. There weren't a whole lot of them, since hardly anybody but the Dragon Slayers saw them. Even fewer dragons adopted humans. Gajeel, Natsu, and Wendy are the only ones that we know about."

"Wow," Winry said in awe, "So that means that the three Dragon Slayers of the world are in Fairy Tail? Amazing."

"Yeah, well," grumbled Gajeel, "There are some others, we call 'em Second Generation, though."

"Second Generation..." Ed echoed.

"Jeez, is there an echo out here? Yes, Second Generation!" Gajeel growled.

"I was wondering what you meant!" Ed snapped back, "Excuse me for living in another universe and being slightly curious about magic where we have advanced science!"

The two stared each other down, Gajeel growling deep in his throat. Annoyed, the girls jumped in; Winry grabbed the wrench and twirled it between her fingers threateningly while Levy glared at Gajeel, poking him in the arm. Just to frighten him, she wrote a small Solid Script; _Thunder _in the air and waved it threateningly. Both boys backed down, more afraid of the girls than each other.

Winry turned to Levy cheerfully, "Do continue. I'm curious about these Second Generations."

"Well," she started to explain, "They're Dragon Slayers and use the same magic, but were never taught nor raised by dragons. Instead, they had Dragon Slayer lacrimas implanted in their bodies. We've met two people who are Second Generation; Cobra, who was part of a dark guild that a few of our members defeated, and Laxus."

"Laxus? Who's he?" Winry asked.

Levy nodded. "Oh yeah, you haven't met him yet. Well, he went on a bit of a rampage not too far back and got expelled from the guild."

"What's the difference? Like, in magical abilities?" Ed asked, still shooting glares at Gajeel.

"Well for one," Gajeel grumbled, glaring at Ed, "They can't do "secret arts", which are moves unique to a specific dragon. All of the normal moves, like 'roar', are easy enough to do, but they're varied. Salamander's 'Iron Fist' is the fire dragon's equivalent of 'Iron Dragon's Club'. So Second Generations can do variations of these types of moves, depending on what type they are. Laxus is a Lighting Dragon Slayer, while the Cobra dude is a Poison Dragon Slayer. They can't do 'secret arts' because they were never taught by a dragon themselves. Like I said, 'secret arts' are unique to a specific dragon. Typically, 'secret arts' are more powerful than usual attacks but they use up more energy and aren't used as much. Also, Seconds can't go Dragon Force, which is where you boost your power exponentially. I've never done it, but Salamander has done it twice. Apparently, he got scales around his eyes and his flames became hotter and more powerful. It's kind of like a last resort in battle, but we're pretty sure that the only way to achieve Dragon Force is by eating something really powerful. The two times that the idiot managed it was when he ate some Etherion crystals, and the other was when he ate these weird golden flames called the Flames of Rebuke. Like I said, I've never done it, but I could if I had something strong enough in magical properties to eat. A Second Gen can't do it though, because they have specific diets. First Gens can eat pretty much anything. I could eat this table, though it wouldn't taste good. I can eat iron perfectly fine and probably Natsu's fire, though it would hurt like a bitch and give me stomach issues, because dragons have a crazy strong digestive system. We don't know why or how, but being raised by a dragon gives you some dragon qualities. It gives you sharper canines, like dragon fangs and better senses, since dragons have crazy strong senses. We even take on personality traits, like hoarding, being overprotective, the notion of having one mate and one mate only for your entire life," at the first mention of "mate", Gajeel, seemingly subconsciously, shot a glance at Levy out of the corner of his eye, at which Ed and Winry shared a knowing look, "'mating season', motion sickness, except for some reason it doesn't effect me nor Wendy but effects Laxus just fine. But yeah, there's yer differences." He finished with a grunt and crossed his arms.

"Alright," Ed sighed, leaning back in his seat the picnic table, "I've gotta admit; this magic is crazy, even to me."

Gajeel laughed, "Gihi, glad you think so. And we're the craziest guild of them all."

The five shared a good, comfortable moment, broken by Levy, who turned to Winry and asked, "Do you like books?"

Winry shrugged. "Yeah, I do like them. But I never have enough time to read for fun, and when I was little I always used to read medical books that my parents had around the house. I did like this one series a while back that was really good, but like I said, I've been too busy to read unfortunately."

Levy's eyes flashed with excitement, "Well," she said happily, "We'll just have to fix that, won't we?" Without another word, she stood up, taking Winry with her to the guild's library. Winry stopped in the doorway, turning back to face the boys.

"Don't even think about touching that stuff. It's counted," she warned. Then, she turned back to Levy and continued inside.

Gajeel whistled. "Man, and here I thought that Titania was threatening."

Ed laughed, "You have no idea. She would always beat us up with her tools whenever we did something stupid or bad, and this was before we started doing our alchemy training. She still does it, actually, even when Al had a suit of armour for a body, she still managed to beat him up."

"Why didn't you ever fight back?" Asked Pantherlily, who was keeping an eye out for Gajeel, who was still staring at the case.

Ed shrugged, "Wouldn't feel right. I mean, she can handle herself just fine, but she's not a fighter. Al and I aren't afraid to hurt each other, because we know that we can't do too much damage and that the other will block it if it's too bad. But with Winry, she doesn't know hand-to-hand combat, and she's never sparred before. Al and I have been sparring and fighting for years, so we know a few things. Besides, she's someone who heals, not fights, just like her parents. And really, if I'm honest with myself, I deserve most of the pain she gives me. And besides," Ed said, smirking at Gajeel, "You wouldn't spar with Levy, would you?"

Gajeel growled, "Completely different scenario."

"Elaborate."

"None of yer damn business," he grumbled, fiddling with his own scrap pieces.

Ed raised an eyebrow but backed off, sensing that it was a bit of a touchy subject. So instead he directed his attention once more to magic. "So, you said something about an 'Iron Dragon's Club' or something like that. What is it?"

"Gihi," Gajeel laughed in his weird way, standing up, "It's a part of my magic. I can extend my arm into a metal club. Watch. Iron Dragon's Club!"

He yelled the last bit, and in a flash, his right arm became covered in scales that seemed to be made of iron, then an iron coating appeared over top, sliding over the scales and becoming smooth, extending past the length of Gajeel's arm by a good three feet, ending in a smooth, rounded edge.

In a moment, he shrank it back to normal, the iron disappearing.

Ed whistled appreciatively. "Wow, I'm pretty impressed. Now I've gotta ask, can you eat your own iron?"

Gajeel looked at him weirdly. "What the hell? 'Course not! What kind of stupid question is that?"

"What do ya mean, 'what the hell?' Considering I'm someone who comes from a world without magic, it's a completely valid question!" Ed yelled in return, getting on the defensive.

Gajeel opened his mouth to say something, but Pantherlily beat him to it.

"Don't mind him, it's a common question that Dragon Slayers get asked. Neither of them have ever fully explained it, but the best analogy that I can make is that it's the same as eating your own magic, like Lucy eating one of her spirits,"

Ed smirked, "So you can't eat your own magic? That sucks. Depending on what's around, I can make food with mine!"

Gajeel rolled his eyes, "Yeah, that's great," he said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, I don't see you eating any of your own arm, which is covered in iron-hey!" He cut himself off, his face lighting up as if he just got a great idea. "Maybe I can do that 'Dragon's Club' too!"

Gajeel laughed, "Have fun tryin'. My teacher up and left seven years ago. I'm not patient enough to teach you, and I highly doubt that you would be the type get magic straight away."

"No, that's not what I meant," Ed said excitedly. "Using alchemy, well, technically magic in this world, but whatever, I could transmute my leg kind of like you did to your arm; I could make it longer! It'd be thinner, but still."

Gajeel was interested, "Hm, I dunno. I won't pretend that I know the first damn thing about alchemy,but I don't know if that'll work."

"Exactly," piped up Lily, "We don't know if it will work. And if it doesn't, won't it effect the leg?"

"Nah," replied Ed, rolling up his pant leg, taking off his shoe, and analyzing his leg, propped up on the table, "If something does go wrong, I can always transmute it back."

Pantherlily wasn't so sure about that, but decided to keep quiet. He didn't know a thing about alchemy and it was not his place. But, he flicked his tail nervously, feeling second-hand worry for Ed if Winry somehow found out.

Gajeel grinned, eager to see what Ed's version of his magic would look like.

Ed slid his leg off of the bench and stood up, slapping his hands together. He smiled and then pressed them to his leg.

Immediately, what seemed to be blue lightning crackled around him, and the leg extended. He started to get taller by one foot, two feet, three...

He stopped at four feet, able to stand on the one leg, since he had made a wide base that gradually thinned. He now stood a good three and a half feet above Gajeel, laughing in triumph.

"Wow! I actually did it! This is cool! I could so use this in battle!"

"Congratulations," Gajeel called up smugly, "But I suggest that you transmute or whatever it back. I can smell the lug-nut and Shrimp coming."

Ed cursed and transmuted back, using the same clapping motion that Gajeel had noticed earlier. He was about to question him about it when Ed tripped.

Gajeel laughed, "Gihi, clumsy, aren't ya?"

Ed frowned, pushing himself up into a sitting position, "No, actually, I'm not. This isn't good..." He looked down at his leg, and realized that it didn't have a knee joint where it would bend. His toes looked sculpted on and crude. "Oh no, this is definitely not good."

Gajeel frowned, "What's not good?"

Ed started to get worried. "Alchemy is the science of understanding, deconstructing, and reconstructing matter."

"So?" Gajeel asked, munching on a small piece of iron that he snuck from Winry's case. It didn't look useful, and it was a small screw, so he didn't think that it mattered anyways.

"So?" Ed cried back, still on the ground, scrambling for his shoe that lay nearby, "I have no idea of how auto-mail works! I don't understand the gears or techs of it! In order to transmute it like the way I just did, I only had to understand the mass, what it was made of. But to transmute it back, I needed to understand every nut and bolt! And of course I- ah!" He cried in fear when he saw what Gajeel was eating, and what he was standing by, "_What are you doing? She_'_s going to kill you!_"

Gajeel snorted. "Come on, I doubt that she'll notice a tiny screw."

Ed shook his head, "She wasn't kidding when she said that she had them numbered. Didn't you see it, in the case?"

_Oh, _Gajeel thought, _That was a numbered screw? I thought that it was just the type. Well, shit. It tasted good though. And I doubt that she can do too much damage. _Suddenly he snapped out of his thoughts when he heard their voices coming towards them from the guild hall, about to come outside. "They're coming," He warned.

Ed cursed again. He had his boot on and his pants rolled down so that you couldn't see his leg. "Help me up," he stuck out his hand to Gajeel, "I can't get up if I don't have a knee."

Gajeel rolled his eyes but helped him up as he stood unsteadily.

"You know," Lily said quietly, still sitting on the picnic table, now occupied with wiping down his sword with a small cloth, "She's going to notice right away that you transmuted your leg, and that you ate one of her screws."

"Shut up," Gajeel hissed at his cat, who simply shrugged and smiled slyly. Gajeel turned his head and saw that Winry and Levy were coming back, both girls holding a stack of books and talking excitedly.

"Look at our boys, getting along," Said Winry cheerfully as her and Levy exited the guild with some new books.

Levy laughed as she saw Gajeel help Ed up while Lily was cleaning his sword on the table. "How much do you wanna bet that they were fighting?"

Winry copied her laugh, "I'm not willing to bet against that." She narrowed her eyes in a playful manner, "And I don't believe that I heard an objection at 'our boys,' or am I mistaken?"

Levy flushed and stopped walking, "I-I have n-no idea what you're talking about. Gajeel is not my boy!"

Winry leaned in, remembering how Gajeel had said that Dragon Slayers have acute senses, "Oh, but you wish he was."

Levy flushed even deeper and stuttered more, only causing Winry to laugh. They continued walking towards the three. "Hey," she said kindly, giving her a small hip-bump, "I'm only teasing. But seriously, you should just tell him."

"Tell who what?" Asked Gajeel, his elbow on Ed's shoulder, much to the latter's annoyance.

"Nothing!" Squeaked Levy, her face still rather red. Gajeel raised an eyebrow but shrugged, deciding that it was better not to ask.

Winry giggled at the two and set her books down by her case. She looked down and felt something off. She bent down, looking at the different parts and pieces. Her eyes strayed to the screws, and she picked them up, carefully counting them and putting them back in. She counted 48. The number above the place here the screws were held said 49. She counted them again, while Lily kept an eye on her, and Ed turned around to say something to her, when he saw what she was doing.

"On three," he whispered so that only Gajeel could hear, "We run."

Before Gajeel could ask why, Winry suddenly stood up, wrench in hand, a murderous look on her face.

"Three!" Yelled Ed and he ran forward, but only made it a step before he remembered that he couldn't move and he fell flat on his face. Gajeel, confused, was dragged down with him, swearing heavily.

Winry stood over them, her eyes glinting menacingly. "Edward...Gajeel..." Her tone was malicious and dangerous. The two boys hurried to stand up and get away but kept falling down, cussing all the while.

Levy was about to say something when she felt a small paw on her arm. "I say we step away for a moent," advised Lily as he finished cleaning his sword and putting it back in it's rope sheath.

Levy nodded slowly and the two made away from the table to stand farther away, by the guild's back doors. There they stood, a safe distance away, speculating at their friends's idiocy.

"Yes?" The two answered, still tangled on the ground.

"What did you do?"

"Nothin," Gajeel snarled, but Winry wasn't moved.

"Oh, so you're running away from nothing, hm? And, speaking of which Ed, you seem to be having trouble running. Perhaps your leg needs a repair?"

"Uh..."

In a flash, Winry pulled him up, then yanked off his shoe. "Wha-" she started, "Your foot is so smooth, but I don't see any gears or screws...and it's" she tapped on the foot, "hollow. Ed, what did you do to my precious auto-mail?!"

"Well," Ed said nervously, rubbing the back of his head, "Since I am doing magic instead of alchemy sort of, I decided to try my hand at another type of magic; Dragon Slaying Magic. So, I used my magic alchemy to transmute my leg into Iron Dragon's Club! Cool, huh?"

"You," she said, clutching her wrench tighter, "_Transmuted my auto_-_mail?_"

Gajeel, meanwhile, was using this chance to slip away, when she saw him. And _you,_" she said angrily, pointing the wrench at him, "_You ate my screw._"

"So?" Gajeel asked casually, his hands in his pockets. "I eat a lot of em. And it was only the one, no big deal."

"They're numbered for a reason!" She screeched, "I need every last one of them to make and repair Ed's leg! And I highly doubt that they have the make and model that I'm looking for, considering we're in another dimension!"

And before anyone could say another word, Winry started beating them up with her wrench, yelling about what idiots they were. Gajeel at one point tried to fight back, only to be kicked in the face by Winry. She was absolutely furious and had no problem taking out her anger on an Iron Dragon Slayer, who claimed to be unbothered by metal attacks, and her super-Alchemist/Mage boyfriend.

"Hey guys, what's going o-" Al had come outside to see how the others were doing, but stopped short beside Levy and Lily when he saw what was going on outside. "Oh, no. What did Brother do now?"

Levy shook her head, "Well, Ed did something to his leg and I think that it needs to be fixed, and Gajeel ate one of her screws."

Al sighed. "Geez. You would think Brother would learn, but no. And I would've thought that Gajeel would've listened."

"Gajeel? Listening to reason?" Lily snorted, and Levy smiled. They all stood for a moment, watching the chaos, when Levy spoke up.

"Shouldn't we do something?"

"We probably should, but I would rather not get in the way of Winry now. She's acting a lot like Erza if someone does something to her cake." Pantherlily agreed, but shrugged back sheepishly.

"Alright, don't mess with Erza's cake, note taken," Al said loosely, "And I would intervene, but my body is flesh and bones again, so I can feel pain. I'm not exactly as eager as I used to be."

"Understandable." Levy commented, still clutching the books. Al pointed to them.

"Woah! Where did you get those?"

"From the guild's library," she exclaimed happily, "I can show you if you want!"

The three were about to go inside, when Erza suddenly stepped up beside them.

"What's going on here?" She asked casually.

"Uh," Al said cautiously, "Ed may have wrecked his leg and Gajeel may have eaten Winry's screw."

Erza glared at the still fighting trio. "Is that so..." Without another word, she walked towards them briskly, her armour clanking.

Levy sighed, "Oh no, here it comes."

Before Al could question what she meant and what Erza was about to do, he heard two loud _clang!_s and turned to see Ed and Gajeel crumpled on the ground.

"Respect a woman's property!" Erza declared, then walked back towards the three at the guild doors. She joined them and in a moment Charlene came running out, standing beside them.

"What happened? Wait, Gajeel ate something of Winry's and Ed messed with his leg,right?"

"How did you know?" Asked Al incredulously.

Charlene waved her hand dismissively, "Gajeel's aura now has a small taint of metal from your world, which means that he ate something, and Ed has a small taint of magic on his leg, which means that he transmuted it."

"About that," Al wondered, "Ed gave up Alchemy about a year ago. I'm glad that he's got it back, but..."

"But you're worried that he might've cheated The Truth?"

"H-how," he stuttered, with the girls and Pantherlily ogling behind them, "How did you-"

Charlene tapped her head, "Illusionist. I did a quick Scan before we met, just to get to know my backgrounds and figure out how to handle the situation. But, to answer your first question, I don't think that he's cheating The Truth. He did give up alchemy and he's using magic now. Yes, it's using the same principles of Alchemy, but it's still magic. This world doesn't have the right flows nor energies for alchemy. So, you guys have created a whole new style of magic based off of Alchehestry and Alchemy."

"Is that even possible?" Al asked.

"Sure," it was Erza who answered, "Magic is freedom. Although there are some rules and base lines to each type, there is so much that you can do. You are aware they Gray does Ice-Make, correct? Well a fellow comrade of his uses the same magic, but he can make his come to life, in a sense. And while Re-quip Magic is very popular, my signature magic, The Knight, is a unique magic ability that I came up with myself."

Alphonse nodded. "I see. Wow, there really is so much to learn about this place." He smiled, eyes far away, "I think that we'll like it here."


	8. Chapter 8 the first night

The First Night

By the time that Erza had intervened, Gajeel and Ed were beaten up pretty badly and Winry was still fuming.

"Now I don't know if I can even make another leg!" she cried out in frustration. They were back in the din of the guild hall, a milkshake spiked with just a hint of sake in front of Winry, whiskey in front of Ed, and a glass of mercury before Gajeel. When Mira had first come over with the drinks, Ed thought that she was crazy, having recognized the deadly liquid metal element. But then Gajeel had just grabbed his mug with grumbled thanks and took a swig.

"I'm sure you can," Levy tried, feeling somewhat guilty for leaving the guys alone with the stuff, "It's only one screw, right?"

Winry groaned, letting her head fall onto the table. "Unfortunately, you're wrong. I rushed in packing so I only brought enough screws for one fix. I usually bring spares, but that's all that I had and I didn't have time to stop and get more. And every screw is needed to properly make auto-mail, it's a very precise science. Without even one, I can't do anything."

Charlene, who had been sitting across from Winry in between Pantherlily and Levy, stood up. "Okay, that's it. Gimme a screw."

"What?" Winry was confused.

"I said," Charlene repeated irritatedly, "Give me a screw."

Reluctantly, Winry reached down into her case and grabbed a screw, the same kind that Gajeel had eaten.

Without saying thank you, Charlene snatched the screw from Winry and marched out to the back of the guild and outside.

"What is she...?" Asked Ed, trailing off as he craned his neck to see.

"I don't know," Winey grumbled, "but if I lose one more screw..." She let the threat hang in the air, partially meant towards the two boys across from her. Al had ditched pretty quickly after the scuffle, being absorbed in the library, trying to see what he could learn about magic. Erza had gone off to sit with Gray, who was busy looking for his shirt that he had lost. Riza was still chatting with Bisca and Alzak, Roy still with Natsu, Wakaba, Romeo and Macao. Wendy, Charle, Mai and Xiao Mai were getting on just fine, talking about how crazy their friends were, their abilities, who taught it to them, everything. Wendy didn't have any friends that were her age, so it was a nice change.

After a minute, Charlene returned, dropping something into Winry's hand and then sitting down. "There," she grumped, "I was sick of hearing you complain, so I made you a new one. Mind you, it might have some magical properties to it, since I made it using magic and from something of this world, but it should be pretty fine."

Winry was staring at the two screws in her hand in disbelief, as was Ed. Quickly, she grabbed a pair of her goggles, the kind that could magnify objects, and inspected the two screws. After a moment, she shook her head and put them down, taking off the goggles.

"I don't believe it," She said, setting the two screws down on the table, "They're exactly the same. I can't even tell which one is which. Thank you."

"Yeah well," Charlene turned away, a light pink dusting her cheeks. She wasn't used to being thanked, "No big deal. You were bugging me with your complaining and it was getting annoying. So now you can't be mad at the boys and I don't have to listen to it."

"Well," Winry said dangerously, glancing at Ed and Gajeel, "I can still be very much mad at them for doing it in the first place and then not helping you make another one. I mean, Ed has alchemy and Gajeel has iron magic, even screws just lying around! They could have done something."

"I don't know how to make those screws anyway! It's too precise and small an-"

"You're the youngest person ever to become a state alchemist and you've successfully done human transmutation on you and Al! I'm pretty sure that you could figure out a screw!" Winry snapped. Gajeel smirked into his cup, silently laughing at Ed. Charlene groaned. Part of the reason why she had made that screw was so Winry would shut up. She knew that she was protective of her auto-mail, but _damn, _was she relentless. She had been bitching at Ed and Gajeel for a good ten minutes now! Didn't she ever run out of steam?

Charlene steadied herself mentally. As much as she had forgotten and missed the good feelings of being with other humans and their hospitality, she also revelled in the fact that she didn't have to deal with their petty problems. Hopefully a portal would show up soon and she could send the otherworlders home, part ways with Fairy Tail as unlikely acquaintances and never have to worry about them again. Well, unless they got mixed in with a world-threatening problem, which happened more than was usual to Fairy Tail. She recalled Mai back on the train, asking if she was a member of their guild. Charlene snorted silently. _Yeah right, _she thought bitterly, sipping a hot chocolate that Mira had made, _A hermit joining a guild? Hilarious._

Meanwhile, Ed was trying to defend himself. "Human genetics are easy enough to understand, but I don't get why everything in a screw has to be so perfect! I don't understand it, let alone auto-mail!"

Winry sighed, standing up and grabbing her case. "Well, arguing isn't going to fix your leg. I have to make a whole new one, so that'll take a good two, three days." She groaned.

"Two or three days?" Levy asked,, "But a portal could pop up any moment. Can't you work faster?"

Winry shook her head, "Even when I have a professional work space and all of the tools I need, it still takes me three all-nighters to make a limb from scratch, and I don't have any of the power tools except for the portable ones." She groaned. "Scratch that. It'll take me three to four days, if I'm lucky."

"I'll help!" Ed offered, "I'm not going to pretend to know the first thing about auto-mail, but maybe I could make or cut pieces."

Winry smiled softly."Actually, that'd be great. Normally I wouldn't let you near my stuff, but I'm sure that I could make an exception." She glanced at Gajeel hopefully, but he pretended not to notice.

Levy kicked him under the table. "Oi!" He hissed at her, earning a glare from the bluenette. "Alright, fine," he put his mercury down and looked up at Winry, "I'll help ya. I can make iron and this idiot can transmute it to whatever metal ya need."

"Actually," Ed said with a small laugh, "I can't. Even though in this world it's magic, it's still Alchemy and it uses the same rules. Equivalent Exchange; in order to gain something, something of equal value must be lost."

"So?" Gajeel grunted.

"So," Ed said irritatedly, "Iron does not have the same alchemical value as reinforced steel, so I can't make that."

"Well Charlene can," piped up Levy, wanting to get the boys to work for Winry in a sort of reconciliation, "She uses the same idea, but doesn't have to worry about Equivalent Exchange, right?"

Charlene hid behind her glass, not wanting to be involved in helping. She had gotten Winry her screw and that was only because she had hoped that that would make Winry would shut up. "Yeah," she mumbled.

"Great!" Levy said, "You guys can help Winry, I'm sure it'll be a lot faster with magic!" She laughed and waved off the four of them, going to join Jet and Droy, Pantherlily flying behind her. To be honest, they had almost forgotten Pantherlily, he had been so quiet, sipping his kiwi juice. Ed, Gajeel and Charlene realized that he had been the smartest of them; If he had said anything he might've been dragged into it too.

"Okay!" Winry chirped, adjusting her grip on her case, "Where should we go to work?"

Gajeel sighed, as if he was about to regret what he was about to say. "I have a workshop at my place. There aren't any tools since I just use my magic, but there's enough space and metal there for you to use."

"Perfect," grumbled Charlene, "Let's go and get this done. The faster it's finished the more I can look for portals."

"Agreed. I can't wait to get home," Ed nodded and tried to stand up, only to fall back into his seat. "Shit," he mumbled, "I can't get up."

"Of course you can't," Winry said with slight irritation, putting his left arm over her shoulder and helping him up, "You don't have a knee. You're useless without my auto-mail."

"Yeah yeah," he mumbled, standing up and letting go of Winry. He was able to walk, well, limp, on his own now that he was up.

They left, Winry telling Riza where they were going and that they would be back tomorrow.

"Alright," Riza nodded, "I'll let the others know if they ask."

"Thanks!" Winry jogged after the group, waving goodbye.

"What're they up to?" Asked Bisca, leaning forward. Riza noticed how Alzak's eyes seemed to follow Bisca's movements.

"Oh," She replied easily, "They're just off to make a new leg for Ed. I guess that Edward and Gajeel have to help for punishment and Charlene got dragged into it," she smiled. They continued their conversation about guns.

Meanwhile, Mai, Wendy, Charle and Xiao Mai had turned to the topic of how they had first met their friends.

"So how did you get all mixed up with these guys anyway?" Wendy asked.

"Well," Mai started, turning her head upward slightly as if thinking, Xiao Mai copying her moves. "I came to Amestris in search of immortality, or more like the Philosopher's Stone. I wanted to get a good name in for my house, I told you earlier how Xing works, right?"

Wendy nodded. "Uh huh."

"Okay," Mai continued, "So I was the representative of sorts for the Chang house and I wanted to help my clan because it's small and often looked down upon. So I came to Amestris hoping to find the Philosopher's Stone to give to the Emperor, who was dying. I had to cross this big desert with Xiao Mai and ended up in a small mining town. The people there had been helped by Alphonse and Edward, so they told me to look for them, since they were supposedly Alchemic geniuses. A man named Scar helped me, but he turned out to be an enemy of the brothers, but Al accidentally stole Xiao Mai and we ended up helping each other.

"Oh." Wendy awed.

"Well, it makes sense I guess. It sounds like things were pretty crazy." Charle agreed.

Mai and Xiao Mai nodded. "Uh-huh. They're still fixing things up, but it's all going relatively well. What about you, Wendy? How did you meet Fairy Tail?"

"Oh! Well you know how I was saved by Grandeeney and she taught me magic?" Mai nodded. "Well after she disappeared, I wandered around aimlessly until I was found by Jellal. Well, a Jellal from another world, it's hard to explain. Anyway, he was only a few years older than me, about Erza's age. He let me travel with him and helped me. After a few months, he started getting fidgety and acting weird. I've only recently learned that he was worried about a device called Anima made by his world's king and his father that would transport a whole city into their world and change it into a Lacrima, as their world was running out of magic."

"That's horrible!" Mai cried.

Wendy nodded. "It was, but we managed to save everyone. Anyway, after he started acting weird, he dropped me off at what he thought was a guild, but it was only one old man there. He was just a ghost, watching over a device called Nirvana. He used his magic to create a whole bunch of people, or more like summon their ghosts. He made up a guild full of fake people just for me. When I was with them, I found Charle."

Wendy smiled at her and Charle smiled back."Yes, I remember that. Your hair was shorter."

Wendy giggled and continued. "So after about seven years, there was this dark guild that was causing trouble, so a bunch of light guilds sent representatives to team up with other guilds' representatives and stop them. Myself and Charle were the only ones sent from Cait Shelter, my old guild. We stopped the bad guys who were trying to get Nirvana and destroy my guild. We were going to celebrate, but they revealed who they were and what they did for me. Natsu-san and the others took me in and I joined their guild. Although they're crazy and sometimes inappropriate, they've all been so nice to me."

Mai giggled. "Well it seems that it was pretty crazy here too."

Wendy shrugged. "You can't be in Fairy Tail and not expect craziness."

The four at the table laughed, knowing that although they were from different worlds, they weren't that different after all.

Meanwhile, the boys talking about their different flame abilities were getting on fine.

"Wow!" Romeo gushed, "So you just snap your fingers and things explode?"

"Well," Roy said with a sense of pride, "It doesn't work like that exactly. The glove is made of a specific type of material that creates a spark when I snap. I use my alchemy to change the properties of the air around me in order to make it more flammable."

"So you use that magic circle on your glove, then?" Asked Wakaba around his pipe.

"Yes and no," Roy replied. For the past little while, he had been taking notes on some of their attacks and he had silently promised to figure out whether he could use smoke like Wakaba's to his advantage or make purple flame like Macao, "Every transmutation needs a transmutation circle. This is my Flame Alchemy circle. Some people get their specific transmutation circles tattooed on their bodies, since they may use the same circle more than anything else, as it's their specialty. I don't need to use it, because of a, uh, _misadventure _that I had but I prefer to use a transmutation circle rather than clap and snap. Anyway, it's a transmutation circle, not a magic circle, although I guess in this world it's a magic circle after all."

"Why don't you have your mag- I mean transmutation circle tattooed? It sounds very specific and I'm guessing that if it's broken then it doesn't work, right?" speculated Macao.

"Aye! And what do you mean by clapping and then snapping?" Asked Happy, raising a paw.

"You saw how in the desert Ed created that wall of rock?" Answered Roy.

Natsu and Happy nodded.

"Well," He continued, "Ed went on the same sort of misadventure as I and doesn't need a transmutation circle. Instead, he claps his hands together to act as the circle, then uses himself as the formula. Then he simply touches the thing that he wants to transmute and it obeys his will. The clapping is mandatory in order to perform it and for most alchemists, it's a lot easier than making a perfect transmutation circle each time."

"And what about my question?" Prodded Macao.

"Oh," Roy said with a slightly heavier voice than before, "Well, Riza didn't want me to."

Macao, Wakaba and Natsu judged by the finality of his voice that he wasn't about to reveal more. Happy and Romeo were confused but didn't say anything.

"Well," Natsu piped up, trying to get the conversation upbeat again, "That's pretty cool, but I don't need a magic circle anymore."

"Wow, Natsu-nii!" Awed Romeo, "Do you think that one day I could be as strong as you?"

Natsu chuckled, "I dunno, I'm pretty strong, Romeo!"

"Ah, c'mon!" Whined Romeo and the others laughed.

Everyone spent the rest of the day chatting away until the sun set and Cana broke out the alcohol. She had just come back from a job and demanded her booze. Al, who had taken a few of the books from the library, had sat again with Mai, Wendy, Charle and Xiao Mai. When Cana had arrived, he leaned over and whispered "Who's that?"

"That's Cana," Wendy chirped, "She's really nice, but, uh,"

"She drinks a lot and makes more dirty jokes than you can believe." Charle finished with a small huff.

"Is that a challenge?" Roy had come up behind them beside Riza, his jacket slung over his shoulder. Riza had hers over her arm, leaving her in the blue pants and her green turtleneck. "You know," he continued, "I've been in the military a long time and I've heard my fair share."

"I don't think that that's something to be proud of, Colonel." Al laughed.

But Roy wasn't listening, he was now looking at the brunette, who was cradling a barrel of what seemed to be booze, "What is she..."

Then, she tipped it and started chugging. Riza raised her eyebrows and Roy choked. Al's mouth dropped open as he said, "No way that's safe! How can she drink that much, surely she'll get alcohol poisoning?!"

Charle sighed, "She has an iron stomache, no one can out drink her."

"No one from _this _world," Roy said overconfidently. With that, he strode over to her, with Riza in tow, the others watching from their table.

"Well, hello," Cana drawled as the two approached her. They both noted how she sounded totally and absolutely sober, as if she hadn't just chugged an entire barrel of booze. "Do we have some newbies, hm?"

"Not exactly," Roy answered just as smoothly, but not in a flirtatious tone, "I guess that you weren't here for this but we're actually from another universe."

Cana laughed, "I should have guessed. My cards said that there would be some important visitors today. And I was thinking that they would just be some big wigs looking for a job request, ha!"

"Your cards?" Riza asked. "Is that your magic, seeing the future with cards?"

"Sorta," Cana now had a second barrel on the counter that she took a swig from and cradled between her legs. "I can do a lot more with cards, like fight and communicate and cast spells and stuff, but yeah, I'm a Card Mage and I can use my cards to see into the future. So do you guys use magic, then?"

Roy shrugged, "It's a little hard to explain, but yes and no. I use Alchemy, which is magic in this world, and my colleague, First Lieutenant Hawkeye-"

"Call me Riza," she said kindly.

"Is our best sharp-shooter." Roy finished proudly.

Cana snorted, taking another swig from her barrel, "So, did you just come over here to brag?"

"Actually, I came here to challenge you," Roy replied easily, leaning on the counter. Riza sighed in exasperation.

"Oh?" Cana said slyly, raising an eyebrow, "Challenge me to what exactly?"

"Well I'm not stupid enough to challenge you to a drinking contest," he gestured to her barrel, "but I hear that you make some dirty jokes?"

Cana laughed, "Ha! That's not much better than challenging me to a drink off!"

"Don't underestimate a military man," Roy slid into the seat next to Cana and beckoned Mira over, "What exactly do you serve here?"

"We have the normal stuff, like wine and booze and whiskey and virgin drinks, but we also have enchanted drinks. Our most popular is the enchanted beer from tap."

Roy shrugged, "Why not? I'll try it," he turned to Riza with a small smile, "I'm almost tempted to ask if you want something."

"But you know better," Riza said simply, sliding into the seat next to him.

"Well, if it's dirty jokes you want, you've come to the right person." Cana smirked evilly. "Shall we begin?"

Unfortunately, Mai, Al, Wendy, Charle, Xiao Mai, and now Romeo (Natsu had just gotten into a brawl with Gray and he didn't feel like hearing his dad and Wakaba talk about the girls) were sitting a little too close to the bar. Wendy, with her Dragon Slayer Hearing, blushed immediately, as Roy and Cana started out quiet, then got louder and louder. Mai was trying hard not to blush but failing miserably, Xiao Mai covering her ears, Charle looking horrified and ashamed of the two who were telling the jokes, Romeo was embarrassed but used to it, even though he was barely seven, Wendy now had her ears covered, to no avail, and her head on the table. Al was blushing furiously as well and stood up when he heard a particularly dark innuendo. "I think it's time we leave."

He walked over to Riza, who looked bored but her eyes sparked with amusement. "Hey," he said, "Where's Ed and Winry?"

"They went to Gajeel's to fix Ed's auto-mail," she replied.

"Oh okay, do you know where we're staying?"

Riza frowned. "Hm, I don't." At that moment, Mira had just been giving Cana her fifth barrel and Mustang's fourth beer. She heard the two and made her way over.

"Well," she piped up sweetly, "We do have spare rooms here and in the infirmary, in case someone needs them. I don't see why Charlene didn't use one of them, but I think that she secretly enjoyed the visit with Lucy." She giggled and the other two smiled.

"That'd be great, Mira!" Chirped Al.

"That's very kind of you," Riza cut in, "But are you sure that it's alright? I don't want to overstay our welcome."

Mira laughed. "Of course it's all right! And you're guests who need our help. Fairy Tail has never been the type to turn down those in need."

"I guess that that's what makes you guys so unique," Riza said sagely.

"That and a few other things..." Al trailed off, glancing at the still fighting boys, who had managed to drag Erza and Elfman into it too. The three of them laughed.

"I'll go tell Mai," Al said after a moment.

"Great, I'll show you where they are!" Mira chirped and walked out from behind the bar.

"I'll keep an eye on these two," Riza jerked her head towards Mustang and Cana, who were still going at it and making dirtier and dirtier jokes. As they walked away, Al shook his head. They had little kids nearby, one of which had super-hearing. Was this really a good idea?

"Hey, Mai," Al waved as they walked back over, "These guys have some spare rooms that we can use, wanna check them out and claim them before the others?"

"Sure!" Mai's eyes lit up and she hopped off of the bench, Xiao Mai jumping onto her shoulder.

"Well," Wendy said, picking her head up off of the table, still blushing, "I think it's time that we go home too."

"Where do you live, Wendy?" Mai asked.

"Oh, I live at Fairy Hills, the girls' dormitory."

"Why couldn't we just stay there?" Asked Al.

"Because," Mira said sweetly, "No boys are allowed in the girls' dormitory."

"Well, couldn't the guys just stay at the boys' dormitory?" Asked Mai.

Mira suddenly seemed to darken and Romeo shuddered. "No, there isn't one." She said with finality.

"It happened before I was born, but Dad told me what happened," Romeo chimed in, "Don't ask."

The alchahestresses decided to heed his advice.

They bade good night and followed Mira upstairs to their rooms.

After a while, the members of Fairy Tail slowly made their way home, the last ones being Gray, Cana, Roy, Riza, Mira, and Juvia. They were all either participating in or watching the dirty jokes contest. Roy had had quite a few glasses of beer and was tipsy, but not drunk while Cana was only slightly tipsier, hiccuping, slurring, a light blush brushing her cheeks.

The two were going at it, throwing dirty jokes at the other. The point, apparently, was to make the other person either blush or laugh. Those were spectating found their heads whipping from side to side following the jabs like a tennis match. Finally, Roy said something that sent the audience into fits of cackles and giggles and snorts and Cana had to catch herself and turn a snort into a cough. She glared at Roy. Then, she leaned in and whispered something in his ear. No one else could hear it.

Then, Cana pulled away from Roy, leaving him flushed and stuttering. Cana laughed. "Ha! Told ya I would win!" She cackled and chugged her barrel.

"What did she say?" Asked Gray, leaning forward a bit, Juvia following his movements.

Roy cast a quick glance at Riza and then cleared his throat. "I believe that that's confidential information." And just like that, he was back to his cool self.

"Well," Riza said as she got up, "I think that it's time we went to bed."

"Oh, you two go ahead, we won't stop you. But I'm not washing the sheets!" Cana called.

Roy snorted, putting an arm around Riza. "That was weak, Alberona." With that, the two of them bid the others goodnight and went upstairs to their (separate) bedrooms. It wasn't long after that when everyone headed home and Mira locked up for the night.

The guild was eerily silent except for the soft sounds of sleep coming from the quest bedrooms. Magnolia was shutting down, the last lights in houses turning off, leaving the street lights burning bright. In a dark corner of Magnolia was Gajeel, Edward, Winry, and Charlene, working hard on auto-mail in a small, hot shed.

Charlene grumbled to herself as she created the proper metals and helped Ed fuse them together using magic. Suddenly, she felt an odd, familiar tingle on the back of her neck. She topped and turned around, but of course they were the only ones in the shed.

"Something wrong?" Ed asked as he wiped some sweat off of his brow. He was tired and it was hot and he wanted to sleep. He didn't get how Winry did this for three nights straight.

After a moment, Charlene turned back slowly to the work. "No," she lied easily, "It was just a cat. It startled me, is all."

Ed shrugged. "Alright, then get back to work!" He laughed and continued what he was doing.

Charlene smiled and nodded, helping with the auto-mail. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, something bad. She had an inkling that a giant red flag was staring her right in the face, but she just couldn't pinpoint it...

_Oh well, these guys will be back in their own universes soon enough and I can move on and check it out. One problem at a time._


	9. Chapter 9 AutoMail

**Hullo, my sweets! I am so sorry that this has taken so long, and it's so short. I've been busy, but that's hardly an excuse. For my guest reviewers to whom I cannot speak to directly, I would like to say Thank you to one of you, I'm glad that you like my OC and that you've NEVER FANGIRLED HARDER. It warms my heart. And Guest #2, I AM SO SORRY THAT LUCY WASNT IN THAT CHAPTER MORE I REALLY AM! I'm trying to balance out the characters here, so some might not be in the spotlight as often. I love Lucy, I really do, and think that's she's super awesome. She's not in this one for much longer, unfortunately, but she has had a fair bit of book time. Everyone else, I reply to you directly with messages. BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIWES. NOW ON WITH THE FANFICTION!**

AutoMail

The next day, everyone was at the guild. The newcomers had sort of already fallen into a routine with the surrounding Mages. Mira and Lisanna had been kind enough to make them breakfast.

"Thank you," Alphonse said with a smile. He dug around for a moment in his pocket, bringing out 10 cenz. "I don't suppose that these are worth anything?" He held his hand out to Mira, who had been topping off drinks. She put her tray down and looked at the coin.

She turned them over until she finally said, "I've never seen currency like this. What is it called?"

"It's a cenz," Riza answered patiently, "And that is the 10 cenz coin."

Mira laughed and gave the coin back to Alphonse, "Well. We're learning more and more about you guys! And don't worry about paying, we're too nice for that." (in the back, at the bar, Natsu grumbled about how Mira wasn't nice enough to give _him _free breakfast)

Suddenly, the guild doors swung open revealing a very tired Gajeel and Edward, and a well rested Charlene, Winry, and Pantherlily.

"Good morning!" Winry chirped happily. They walked down into the guild, taking a seat with the Amestrians.

"Good morning," Riza greeted, "Did you finish Ed's leg?"

"Yep!" Winry replied happily as Mira brought over some more plates (even one for Gajeel, whom she felt a twinge of sympathy for). "It's amazing how fast it goes when you're using magic!"

"Fast?" Gajeel grumbled into his toast, "It took all night."

"Yeah," Ed said groggily as he played with his eggs a little bit, glaring at the milk that Mira had put in front of him, "Well, Winry usually stays up for three nights if she has to start from scratch. We're lucky that she had all the materials that she needed."

"I always come prepared!" Winry chirped.

"Then why didn't you prepare to bring any extra screws?" Mumbled Charlene into her juice, quietly enough so that only Gajeel with his heightened senses could hear her. He laughed and turned it into a cough so as not to get in any more trouble.

"All night?" Roy asked with a twinge of teasing, "Only you and Gajeel look remotely tired."

"I'm used to staying up all night on auto-mail. And since I love it, time flies!" Winry was happy as ever, more so than usual because she had help that _actually _helped her.

"Used to not getting sleep." Came the monotone reply from Charlene, who was tearing into a piece of ham.

Pantherlily grinned, "I was fast asleep in my nice, warm bed."

"But wouldn't the noise have kept you awake?" Mai asked, "I've heard that it's very noisy."

"I have magic ear plugs," he explained, "They block out all noise."

"Seems like a useful thing to have," Commented Al, "Do most people have them?"

Pantherlily shrugged, "No, almost no one in the guild has them, since they completely block out everything. It can be dangerous, especially for Mages."

"So why do you have them?" Winry asked.

Gajeel tensed and shot a warning glare at Lily, who merely shrugged, an evil grin creeping its way onto his face, "Well, Gajeel has a tendency to snore very, very loudly."

Everyone at the table laughed, an image of Gajeel, sound asleep in his bed, Pantherlily curled up with him, emitting snores that shook the house stuck in their heads. For some reason, it was too funny.

Gajeel stood up with his food, "I'm going over to sit at the bar, where no one will make fun of my sleeping habits," he shot a glare at Lily, "Cat." He grumbled away and sat down at the bar, devouring his food and keeping it away from Natsu.

"Touchy guy," Roy commented.

Lily shrugged, "Not usually. Just doesn't like people knowing about his personal stuff." He smiled slyly in the direction of where Gajeel was sitting in silence, "But it's fun to mess with him sometimes."

"I have to admit," Winry said with a smirk, "I love to get tough people all flustered. It's funny."

Ed snorted, "And just who do you get flustered? You're not exactly hard to embarrass yourself."

Winry smiled sweetly and leaned closer to Ed so that they were almost nose-to-nose, batting her eyelashes, "Oh, but that doesn't mean I can't get _you _flustered." She pecked him on the nose, leaned back, and calmly resuming her breakfast.

Ed was flushed and stuttering. This surprised no one at the table,but a few onlookers had to admit that they were surprised. From the moment that he had come here, Ed had acted tough, not proud, but someone who had definitely been through some tough shit. Seeing him flustered and disgruntled was amusing. It was funnier when the prey was Gajeel, though. It was almost like a tiny taste of revenge (even though they were all totally cool with him now).

After a little more of laughing and joking around, Charlene started to feel a strange sense of common ground. Everyone at the table was from another universe. She missed the culture shock of all the different worlds and started to feel a little homesick. She was glad when they finished their breakfast and Winry decided that she would put Ed's leg on in the guild's backyard.

Soon, Ed was in his boxers and lying down on a lawn chair, Winry holding up a metal leg. She removed Ed's original leg, which looked like it had been sculpted to look like a leg. It was very lifelike, but it was still and couldn't be moved. Winry's leg, however, almost didn't resemble a leg at all. It had the same shape and it had ave toes, a foot, and a knee, but it was made up of screws and wires and plates of reinforced steel and nuts and bolts and so many other different parts.

Natsu saw Ed in his boxers and laughed.

"What's so funny?" He snapped. He was used to Winry seeing him like this, she was his mechanic after all, although it had gotten a little awkward for him when they started dating. But he didn't like being this..._naked _to the rest of the world.

"It look's like Gray's stupid stripping habit really _is _contagious!" Natsu laughed at him, only to be hit over the head by Lucy.

"Knock it off!" She scolded him, "He's getting his leg put on! So what if he's in his underwear?"

"Thank you," Ed called out gratefully.

Lucy smiled in his direction. Lisanna, who (like many of the other girls in the guild) had been sizing up Ed, noticed the scars on his right shoulder and left leg, right where his leg ended in a stump.

"What happened?" She asked softly.

Ed and Al's faces darkened. The other Amestrians had been standing nearby, amused at the crowd that was gathering. (Mai, Xiao Mai, Roy, and Riza had never actually seen an automail limb put on someone before,believe it or not).

"Let's just say that it's a constant reminder," Ed mumbled. The Fairies took the hint that it wasn't a reminder of lollipops, rainbows, and happy times.

"So how does this work?" Laki asked, peering through her glasses.

"Well," Winry's eyes had an excited spark to them, "part of why automail is so different from other prosthetics is its ability to move like a real limb. By being connected to the nerves, it receives brainwaves just like a normal limb. The wires connect directly to the nerves and transit the brainwaves to the metal. The wires act as artificial nerves, same way that the metal acts as artificial flesh, muscle, and bone."

Many people were looking lost. Being Mages, they didn't really care about the mechanics of anything. Sometimes Gajeel would show an interest in something that used metal, but usually not for long. Laki was the go-to on wood inventions, but knew nothing of metal.

"Well," Ed said loosely, "It hurts and I need to take good care of it. That's all I need to know."

"Even though you never really take good care of it," Winry scolded. She was putting the leg on him and doing some final adjustments. They were minimal, as he had been present during the manufacturing. "You come back to me almost every month to get it fixed because you forgot to oil it, or it got slashed to pieces, or blown to bits by alchemy. Who knew there were so many ways to destroy a metal limb?!"

Edward sighed, "C'mon Winry, you know that what I do is dangerous. Do you have any idea how many times I've nearly lost my right arm, thinking that it was metal, only to remember at the last possible moment that it was flesh? I have legitimate reasons for getting it fixed that you can't blame on me."

She screwed something that made him jump and clench his fists. She glared at him, waving her wrench threateningly, "Once, you came to me _three times in one month. _Don't act like you have good reasons. They're excuses."

Ed grumbled and the audience laughed a little. They were a cute couple. They hadn't exactly said as much, but they could all take a guess. Although they might be _completely _oblivious to each other's feelings, Fairy Tail usually had an uncanny ability to be able to find and define relationships in those around them.

"Alright," Winry said at last, grabbing a lever and putting it on Ed's leg, "On three. One," Ed relaxed as best as he could, letting the breeze wash over him, basking in the sunlight.

"Two," He clenched his fists hard on the lawn chair, mentally preparing himself for the quick, excruciating pain...

"Three!" Winry pulled down on the lever, connecting the nerves to Ed's leg. At the same time, a horrible shot of pain raced its way through his body. It had been worse with both limbs at the same time, but it still hurt horribly. Ed let out a strangled sort of noise, somewhere between a yelp and a grunt.

"How's that?" She asked after a moment.

He sat up, moving his leg, kicking backward and forward, wiggling his toes. "Great as ever." He smiled at Winry as she was packing her stuff. He stood up and dusted himself off. "Anyone up for a spar?"

And that was how the guild fight of the day started.

The girls (minus Erza and Cana), Romeo, the Exceeds, and Alphonse all went back inside the guild. They started chatting amongst themselves, talking about automail and how it could work in their world and how Gildarts could use it. The topic started straying more towards Gildarts, and how he would love these guys, and they were wondering why he took such a small job when he had just gotten back.

After a while, Charlene started feeling lonely again. After the Fairies started talking about Gildarts and what he could possibly be doing, the otherworlders started talking about home and whether or not there might be a time difference and if anyone and noticed that they were gone yet and when the next portal would show up, etc, etc. Charlene didn't feel like conversing with people about their favourite father figure or their far-off homeland in another universe. She hadn't had a father figure for a long time, for the same amount of time that she hadn't had a home.

Silently, she slipped out the front doors into the streets of Magnolia. She could hear the big rumble of the boys fighting behind her. She breathed in the fresh air and walked through the streets.

Magnolia was an old city, older than Fairy Tail and even its famous Cardia Cathedral. She had been here a few times, but not very often, and never for long. She didn't like to stay in one place. Too much danger of making friends and digging up emotions and memories that she'd long ago shut away.

But now she had started to go too far. She was getting too friendly with these people and letting herself feel emotions (other than joy, which she could never bear to let go, and cynical, sarcastic judgement, which she had never been able to hide away, not that she had really tried all that hard.), letting herself remember things. The emotions weren't such a big deal. The memories however...

They had started to plague her. They were never in the front of her mind, they never came in sudden blasts like flashbacks, and they were always silent. They were subtle, always there, always at the back of her consciousness. No matter what she did, the memories would be there, just out of her reach to lock them away, never letting her focus completely on the task at hand. Last night, she had almost wrongly cut several pieces and had to do three changes to one because it was the wrong substance.

The bad ones were easy to bear. She could see fires running rampant, people scattered in the streets, an entire population screaming, wanting to leave with their family but they couldn't be together, not if they wanted the multiverse to survive. Charlene didn't have much of a problem with these visions. She had come to terms with them, understood why they had happened.

And then there were her happy ones. These she hated and these would come at the randomness of times, catching her off guard and almost letting her mask fall apart before these new people. She would see a girl about her age with bubblegum pink hair, talking loudly and with excitement. There was a boy who almost always looked like Charlene's twin, always changing to match. There were moments of a loving, red-headed mother and a caring, dark-haired father. But the person whose face hurt the most to see was someone who she had forced herself to forget, who was now climbing his way through her subconscious.

He was tall, always tall. He liked being a beanpole, sprouting up and over everyone else. He loved his ginger hair, claimed that it made him look cool. He had freckles and lots of them. Sometimes, when he was bored in school, they would move around to form constellations. Oh, how he had loved the stars. His eyes were the only things that he could never decide on. Sometimes they were brown, or maybe gold, possibly blue, perhaps green, every now and then they would be grey, or perchance all at once. They were always a swirling vortex of colour and never-ending jokes. Charlene had always been a cold sort of person, but he came into her life and warmed her right up with his friendly, bubbly attitude, his warm red hair that looked like flames when it caught the light just so, his happy smile that almost always seemed plastered on his face, only to be replaced by sarcastic frowns or petty pouts. He would wear the most ridiculous of things, like bow ties and cowboy boots and muscle shirts and horrible, bright, ugly socks, and the weirdest suspenders with matching belts and sometimes he would wear them all at once. He loved to make people laugh and he was the only one that could make her laugh.

She remembered him once telling her that her laugh was the most beautiful. Not because it lit up her whole face, or made her eyes sparkle, or because "it sounded like angels came down from the thousand different heaves and said 'yup, this laugh is heavenly, we could learn from her'" (an actual quote from him that had only made her roll her eyes and shove him back onto the grass playfully), but because he said that it was so rare, and it was almost like she saved it just for him, simply because he was the only one who was able to bring it out in her.

Charlene stopped dead in the street, the people of Magnolia giving her weird looks but moving on by. Charlene slowly lifted her hand up to her eyes and felt tears slowly streaming down her face. She wiped them off and headed for the woods that bordered the town. There were too many auras surrounding her, too strong and too curious and too interesting. She needed to get away from these people, away back into her silent, lonely life where she could fix things behind the scenes in peace.

After running for a while, she stopped at a brook. The water gurgled by peacefully, fish splashing here and there. Charlene sighed and plopped down by the bank, letting her bare feet soak in the cool water. Fish nipped at her toes playfully and moved on, decided that she didn't taste very good and that she was too big and scary to be food.

Charlene like it out in the wilderness. Almost everything had the liveliness of a biotic aura, but not the loud audacity of conscious thought. Trees grew in silence, fish swam by with quick, easily forgotten thoughts. The animals were solely focused on surviving, nothing trivial like humans.

Humans. _They are pretty entertaining, _Charlene thought to herself, _Always bustling about, worried about their pasts, their present, their futures. And they all go by so fast, in the blink of an eye. They've come so far in so little time. It's amazing. But it's made them proud. They think that they can do anything and everything. Non_-_magic humans think that they're better than magic ones, and the magic ones think that they're better than the non-magic ones. There are exceptions, yes, but not many. Then there are the personal prejudices with all sorts of people. It's like one big, giant soap opera._

Charlene giggled to herself, allowing just this one moment of weakness. One? Well, those Fairies were wearing her down, forcing her to show emotions. One thing was for sure, this group of Mages was different from anyone she'd ever met.

Charlene stood up, her bare feet tickled by the cool grass. Just as she was about to leave, she felt a chill, an aura that she had almost forgotten. She recognized it immediately as the aura from the night before at Gajeel's. She had put it off as lack of sleep (that was an obvious lie) or nerves. But this was certainly not something made up or exaggerated. It was cold, and evil, and insane.

She scanned the clearing, the woods, the town, trying to find this aura. She sensed something, off to the west. She whirled around to face it, met with a sudden wall of darkness that blocked all of her senses, even that which found auras. She was completely blind.

_Well, well, well, _a cold, familiar male voice cooed from all directions, _What do we have here?_

"That's a little cliché, don't you think?" Charlene replied sarcastically, ready to wield magic at a moment's notice.

_Perhaps, but with all the things that we've said and done, what _isn't _cliché anymore? _

"Who are you?" Charlene snapped, "Get to the point."

_Oh, don't like being blind? _The voice chuckled, _Too bad. Listen, it's nothing personal, we just need you out of the way, for a little bit. Well, it's a little personal. I don't like you much. But it's mostly business._

"Who are you?" She demanded again, "What do you want? Why me?"

_Oh, _the voice purred again, _You know _exactly _why it has to be you. Don't play dumb. And what I want, well, I'm not going to just monologue my plans to you. Now _that _would be cliché, and to be honest, you deserve better than cheesy, predictable, villain stuff._

"I appreciate it," Charlene replied smoothly, sensing for a way out, still battle-ready, "But that still leaves one question unanswered."

_Why, I thought that it would have been the most obvious. _The voice seemed to be pretending to be hurt. Suddenly, she felt a presence, like someone whispering in her right ear, _We are Equivalence._

Charlene whipped around, grasped onto the voice, projected by magic, and turned it into light. Immediately, the darkness dispersed, but not before she caught a quick glimpse of a humanoid shadow. After a moment, the woods were completely silent and she wondered if the person had stolen her hearing permanently. As soon as the thought appeared though, the woods slowly started up with noise again, the animals sensing no danger.

It was almost a minute before Charlene remembered to breathe again. She stood uncertainly, on guard for any sudden attacks. But there were none.

Charlene ran out of the forest back into the streets of Magnolia. She fell right in amongst the humans, blending perfectly. On the outside, she looked calm and indifferent. But on the inside, she was churning with emotions. Fear, anger, hope, sorrow, despair, wondering, confusion, and so many other unnamable ones. She found her way back to Fairy Tail, where everyone had calmed down by now. She was about to open the guild's doors and storm in, about to tell everyone what she had just seen. Or rather, not seen.

As her had reached for the handle, she changed her mind. She shook her head, slowly backing away. She had dealt with this before, and she would deal with it now. She didn't need the Fairies' nor the otherworlders' help. She would be just fine on her own, like she always had.


	10. Chapter 10 The Plot Thickens

**Okay, I am always so sorry for not updating sooner and this chapter is a little on the short side, but being a high school student is hard, cut me some slack. Anyways, thank you so much for all thirteen reviews. Unfortunately, thirteen is an unlucky number of mine so I'm kind of wary. I would like to make a special shoutout to SatisfiedCritic. Than you so much for the intelligent overview of it all, I actually rather like the constructive criticism, it's refreshing and helpful. I would love to discuss with you privately my ideas and foreshadows, if you would be so kind to allow me to message you. If not, don't worry about it. Always glad to have a fan. So that's out of the way, on with the chapter!**(**Quick reminder that this was ****_before _****Tenrou, so Jet still has his ridiculous hat and Droy is still thin**)

The Plot Thickens

Team Shadowgear was on a mission.

It was a simple one; just protecting some precious cargo (thousands of dollars worth of books) from bandits on the Iron Road. Surprisingly, there had been several cases of book theft. The thieves seemed to be Mages, so a request was sent to Fairy Tail, the number one guild.

Levy, Jet, and Droy were all stationed in the one cargo car. It was a small train, with only one car and a caboose and engine. Not much more was needed, as it was a small transport trip.

Levy flitted around from box to box, delicately opening them up and reading the contents. She handled the books as if they were bombs and when she was finished with one, she gingerly placed it back into the box from whence it came.

"What are you doing, Levy?" Droy asked in admiration. Jet had taken to running the length of the train every half hour to check for any sign of danger and that was where he was now.

"I'm in a car filled with _books!_" She said excitedly, her Wind-Reader glasses glinting in the light, "How can I not read?" She went back to her book, her glasses allowing her to read faster than was normal.

Droy, deciding to leave Levy to her books (maybe she would finally realize her love for him while stumbling upon a romance), walked out of the car and onto the connector jointing them to the caboose.

He walked down the caboose to the very end of the train, secured by an iron handrail. He lifted his magical binoculars to his eyes to see if he could spot Jet.

They were in a wooded area, coming up on a grass plain. When Jet had last returned, he had reported that there was a bridge about an hour up the track. It was coming up fast now and Droy could see the sudden drop through the trees. He was a little nervous that Jet might not catch them in time, but he wasn't too worried. They were teammates after all, and they had to trust in each other.

Suddenly, Droy spotted a flash of orange, brown, and purple zooming through the trees, keeping pace with the train. He raised the binoculars and confirmed that it was Jet, even though he had already known. But Jet looked worried, maybe even scared. Was he, like Droy, nervous that he wouldn't make it before the bridge?

Suddenly, Jet made a beeline for the train, grabbing onto the rail and hauling himself up. He was panting, which was unusual for him. He used magic to run that fast, not physical strength, so he shouldn't have been this tired out, especially since it didn't take up that much power.

"Ambush," he wheezed, "'Bout a kilometre ahead."

Droy, though still worried, nodded and rushed to the engine to warn the men working the train. Jet stumbled after him into the cargo car, where Levy stood with wide, shocked eyes.

"What happened?" She asked, putting the book down gently.

"There's an ambush waiting for us," Jet answered, his breath still not fully recovered, "Not too far up. Came back as fast as I could."

"But you shouldn't be panting like that," Levy stated smartly, taking off her glasses, "You use magic to run and it shouldn't have taken much to go that far."

Jet shook his head and flopped down by one of the dozens of boxes, "I know I shouldn't, but I am. The guys up ahead, they spotted me, I think. Because as soon as I saw them, I ran back, but it was a lot harder. It was almost as if the ground was taking away my magic. The more I ran, the less magic I seemed to have."

Levy pursed her lips. Perhaps it was some sort of anti-Mage magic, where it drained the opponent's magic. Such a thing was uncommon and possibly illegal, but it still existed. But the part about the ground sucking away energy... That was new.

Suddenly Droy stumbled in. "The engineers!" He gasped, "They're gone!"

"Gone?" Levy and Jet both screeched.

"Gone," Droy echoed, bewildered. "I don't get it either. I went in and no one was there! The Lacrima was still working, so they must have ditched not too long ago."

"I would have seen them, if they had ditched," Jet argued, "There's no way I would have missed them. Are you sure that you checked properly?"

"It's a single compartment with a Lacrima and some levers!" Droy snapped, "Unless they were hiding in the Lacrima, they aren't in there!"

"Boys!" Levy demanded, effectively shutting the two up. "Jet," she said, turning to him, "you said that there was an ambush waiting for us and a bridge coming up."

Jet nodded, "That's right. But we should have been ambushed by now."

"Maybe they saw you and decided to wait, or they used a stealth attack," Levy reasoned, "But the most important part is that we have to protect the cargo. The train will either slow to a stop or be stopped at the station. The crucial part here is that we have to protect the books."

"But," Droy said in distress, "What about the engineers? What happened to them? Are they alright?"

"I don't know," Levy admitted, "But we can't worry about that right now. Our job is to protect the cargo, and that's just what we'll do."

"But Levy," Jet argued, "The engineers could be hurt. I could at least go out looking for them-"

"No!" Levy snapped, "We have to trust that they'll be okay. They're tough. The important thing is to protect these books. Some of them contain dangerous information. These robbers, whoever they are, cannot, under any circumstances, get these books."

"Well," drawled a thick, lazy male voice, "That's quite a shame. I was rather hoping for a good read."

Team Shadowgear whirled around to face the person who spoke. It was a young man, about their age, with a mop of messy blond hair, green eyes, and freckles. He had on a bright green shirt to compliment his eyes and some plain white jean shorts. He was handsome and reminded the Mages of a cat; lazy, stretched out in the sun, but someone to be wary of.

"Oh," he drawled on, "Don't mind me. I'll just be collecting some things. My pals and I are new around here, see,though I wonder if pals is the right term," he made lazy hand gestures as he lounged on one of the sealed boxes carelessly, as if they were old friends chatting, "And we want to learn everything we can. Books are the best way. No matter where you go, they always seem to be constant. Quite convenient, really."

"Get off the train and leave the cargo alone," Levy threatened.

"Or feel the wrath of Fairy Tail!" Jet added.

The stranger's eyes widened. "Fairy Tail," he asked with excitement, "Oh I've heard of you! No matter where we go, there always seems to be news of you. I've come to admire you, actually." Suddenly he snapped his fingers, as if just realizing something, "Say, your home base, or guild I should say, wouldn't be in Magnolia, would it?"

The others exchanged wary glances before Levy slowly answered "Yes... Why?"

The lazy stranger beamed, "Oh, I was _just _there! Paying a visit to an old friend. Well, friend isn't the right term. More along the lines of someone I used to hear about and finally met. You guys wouldn't know Charlene would you?" The last bit he asked warily, more concerned that curious.

"Yes," Droy answered cautiously, "What's it to you?"

The lazy man sighed. "Oh, fluggernugger. Excuse the language, but I was rather hoping that I _wouldn't _have to kill you guys. I was really starting to like you. You all seem so nice, not attacking me straight away and being a part of Fairy Tail. Ugh, _that _will be a pain. I'm sure that your guys will track us down sooner or later and your guild mates will extract their revenge on us. All in vain of course, since we're pretty much immortal, but it's still such a gogely bother. Rather not have to fight them. But," he sighed dramatically, "I'm afraid that I have no choice. I don't want my colleagues mad at me. Well, colleague isn't the right term. I guess friends...?" He became lost in thought, struggling for the right word even though he had just used two totally gibberish words in his last statement.

"We won't be killed so easily," Jet said defiantly as he and his teammates got into defensive stances.

"Oh," the man's eyes snapped back to the present, "I would hope not. It would be no fun otherwise. And then my expectations for Fairy Tail would be crushed," he cocked his head to the side. "Shadowgear..." He muttered, just barely audible.

The Mages tensed. They hadn't told the guy their names yet, nor their team name. They didn't have any specific symbol other than their guild mark to specify being members of a team. Even though they were strong, they weren't exactly the most famous team in Fairy Tail. Team Natsu, or the Strauss siblings, or the Rajunshuu were all teams far more well-known than Shadowgear.

"How do you know who we are?" Levy demanded.

The man smiled, still with an air of laziness, "Well," he replied easily, "I _am _an Illusionist." Then he lunged.

He went straight for Levy, but was tackled by Jet, who sped in front of Levy using his speed magic. The wind was knocked out of the guy, but he otherwise seemed unfazed. He stood up, Jet racing back to Levy's side. Suddenly, he laughed.

"Now _this,_" he spread his hands, an excited glint in his eye that could only be madness, "_This _is what I'm talkin' about!" He laughed again. Then he thrust out his hand and shadows from the darkest corner of the brightly lit car rushed toward the team.

Levy called out "Solid Script: _Light!_" And the word _light _appeared before them, keeping the shadows at bay.

The man laughed. "Smart," he complimented, dragging out the _a. _"I have to say, I am impressed and a little shocked. But to be fair, you guys look pretty shocked yourselves." He was right. Team Shadowgear had not expected him to be able to manipulate shadows. It was a general rule of thumb that the person's appearance matched their magic. Good examples were the Dragon Slayers: sharp, canine teeth and heightened senses (which were typically so obvious that they may as well count as appearances). Biska dressed like a cowgirl, Alzak like a wandering gunsman which complimented both their magics. Jet had a lean body to emphasize speed while Droy had a hairstyle resembling a seedling. So, when this sunny, laid back person who was all bright colours could control shadows, it threw them off a bit.

"Appearances can be deceiving," he chided, "I like to look this way because it tends to throw people off. Charlene and I have that in common. I guess you could say that it runs in the family." He laughed again at the Mages' looks of absolute shock. He carried on and wiped tears of mirth from his eyes. "Oh," he said airily, "you humans are so much fun. You know what? Since I'm a nice guy, I'll give you some information, even though my friends won't like it. Well, friends isn't the right term, but oh well."

He stuck out a hand, as if making to shake with someone. He had a friendly smile plastered on his face, like any normal person. "Hi, my name's Hohenheim, Hohenheim of Light. I'm a part of Equivalence. And I tend to look like this when I get serious." Then, he changed. His face didn't, but his tan turned ashen, his freckles gone, his eyes now a dark blue, and his hair was a dark black, so dark it blended in with the shadows swirling around the guy whose name was apparently Hohenheim of Light. His clothes were no longer brightly coloured; his shirt was black, as were his shorts, now morphed into jeans. He wore black combat boots instead of his original blue flip-flops.

"And that," he continued easily, his hand still out to be shaken, "Is the last thing that you'll ever know, my friends. Although, is that the right term? Oh well, you'll never find out!" He laughed manically and flicked his arm. It had been out straight, the hand vertical, thumb sticking out at the top. When he flicked it, his hand moved flat, the fingers spread and his arm was pointed at them.

"Do send my regards to Charlene, she will be joining you soon." Was the last thing they heard, along with more maniacal laughter, as shadows lunged towards Team Shadowgear.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello, loves! I am SOO sorry that I haven't updated recently, but you've all been so kind with your reviews and messages, so thank you so much for sticking with me this far. I could count excuses off my fingers, but I won't do that. Instead, here's the chapter. It's kinda short, but I'm hoping it'll punch you in the gut a little. Maybe you'll hate me afterwards. Oh well.**

The Future is Near, and it Doesn't Look Good.

Charlene was exhausted.

She had searched all over the city for that stupid aura and it had drained her emotionally. She still had trouble wrapping her head around the fact that Equivalence was in their world. Charlene hoped that it was some imposter, using Equivalence as a fear tactic. If so, it was working.

Charlene decided that there was nothing that she could do. The shadow that had attacked her had completely disappeared without a trace. If she was to find him, she would have to wait for another chance. And the best place to do that would be Fairy Tail. Right then, Charlene was feeling very lucky that she had been hanging around Fairy Tail at that time. The others had accepted her, and although she wasn't a member, she could still keep an eye out for any suspicious jobs or activity.

So, Charlene made her way to the guild hall, quietly opening the doors and creeping to the job board. She hoped to sneak a peak at the jobs for anything unusual and then figure out a game plan from there.

As she was looking, Lucy came up behind her and smiled, "Hello!" She greeted cheerily, "Are you looking to go on a job? Finally joining?" There was something that Charlene saw in her eyes; hope. The Fairies wanted her to join them. Great.

"No," She said easily, "Just looking."

Lucy laughed, "Well if you keep looking, you'll end up like Nab." She jabbed a thumb behind her where Nab was standing, staring aimlessly at the board.

"Hey!" He protested, "I'm just waiting for the perfect job!"

Lucy opened her mouth to reply when she was interrupted by one of the guild doors slamming open.

The quiet din in the guildhall silenced as everyone turned to see Droy standing in the doorway, panting heavily.

He opened his mouth to say something, took a step forward, then promptly collapsed.

Several people rushed forward to carry him into the infirmary.

"Get Wendy!" Master Markarov called, "Someone go and get Porlyusica!"

Mira rushed off to grab Wendy from Fairy Hills while Reedus quickly painted a picture of a carriage on himself, brought it to life outside, got in, and was off in a cloud of dust to Porlyusica's house in the woods.

Makarov turned to Charlene, "Is there anything you can do?"

"Not much," Charlene replied, "But I can wake him up. Give him some painkillers."

Makarov nodded, "Alright then, wake him, but hold off on the painkillers for now."

Charlene nodded then hurried off to the infirmary, where Droy was already placed in a bed and Lisanna was preparing water and a warm washcloth.

"Where are those smelling salts?" Kinana grumbled as she rifled through the cupboards.

"Don't bother," Charlene said curtly. She was beside Droy's bed.

"Wha-" Kinana started to ask, but Charlene held up a hand for silence. Then she placed her hand over Droy's nose. A faint light glowed from her hand and then she yanked it away as Droy sat up, coughing.

"What did you do?" Lisanna demanded.

"Changed the scents in the air around his nose. Simple parlour trick really, and just as good as smelling salts."

Droy caught his breath, then looked around as if trying to remember how he got where he was. After a moment, his eyes grew large with fear and he started to get up.

"No!" Kinana commanded, pushing him back down, "You stay here and tell us what happened."

Droy looked like he wanted to protest, but Lisanna spoke up, "Porlyusica and Wendy are on their way. Now, what is wrong? Where are Levy and Jet?"

Droy suddenly started shaking and almost burst into tears, barely holding back so he could talk.

"We were attacked," He spluttered out, "On the train. We managed to get away thanks to Jet; he carried us and ran. But we slowed him down and the guy's accomplices saw us. We fought, but we managed to subdue them long enough to escape. But Levy took a pretty bad hit so Jet took her to the hospital and I ran here."

The two girls opened their mouths to say something, but Charlene beat them to it.

"What guy?" She asked urgently in a dangerous tone, leaning forward.

"He, uh," Droy stuttered (Charlene was sorta freaking him out), "He said that his name was Hohenheim of Light or something and he-" He stopped then stared at Charlene, as if remembering something, "He said to send his regards."

Charlene stood completely still, a look of utter shock and horror on her face, as if she had seen a ghost. "Hohenheim," She muttered quietly, "I should have known. How could I have been so _stupid!?_" She yelled the last part, standing up abruptly and all but running out the door.

"Wait!" Lisanna called after her, "Who is Hohenheim?" But Charlene was already gone, running down the streets of Magnolia with bitter emotions rolling around inside of her.

The Amestrians, who had been sitting in the guild, perked up and looked uncomfortably at one another.

"Wasn't Hohenheim your father's name?" Roy asked Ed and Al.

The two shared an uneasy glance before Ed answered, "Yeah, but our dad's dead. And even if he was alive, there's no way he could've followed us here."

"But that can't be a simple coincidence," Riza said, "A man with the same name as your late father attacks the very same guild that has given you shelter and hospitality."

"Still," Winry said slowly, "Their father's definitely not here. We _buried _him. It was my grandma that found him and he was certainly dead."

"I don't like it, either way," Roy said, "It seems that they've been attacked and that can't be good news for anyone."

"Well we'll fight with them!" Ed said, slamming his hand on the table, "We owe them that much."

The others went to say something but were interrupted when Wendy burst in though the door. She hurried to the infirmary, panting, with Mira behind her. Master Makarov followed them in and for a minute the hall was completely silent. Then Makarov walked out with Mira, both of them looking solemn. They climbed the stage as everyone's eyes followed them.

Master looked out at his children before he spoke, "Team Shadowgear has been attacked."

That much was obvious, but to hear the Master say it meant that it was bad news. They were Mages and Fairy Tail Mages too. It was expected to be attacked on a job. But Team Shadowgear certainly wasn't weak. They shouldn't have been beat up that badly.

Makarov raised a hand and the guild quieted, "We must not act rashly. We don't know how many of these people there are, or how strong they are. As much as we want to fight, the best course of action would be to stay calm and wait until more information arises."

"But they attacked us!" Natsu yelled, "They hurt our family!"

"And they'll hurt more if we don't think before we fight!" Makarov boomed back. He took a breath than began again in a calmer tone, "There will be a fight, don't worry about that. But we need to prepare first and gather what we can." Then he turned to the Amestrians, "You do not have to fight with us and you have no obligation to. This is a battle between Mages. However, if you so choose, you are welcome to join us."

The Amestrians looked at each other before Ed stood up on the bench, yelling, "Of course we'll fight with you! We wouldn't miss out on all the fun!" Then, for good measure, he slammed his fist into his open palm. The guild cheered.

Meanwhile, Wendy concentrated on Droy. He wasn't hurt too badly but there were a lot of minor wounds. He seemed to be cut badly on his left arm. After a couple of minutes, he was good as new.

"Thanks," Droy said as he hefted himself up off the bed, "I feel great!"

"No problem," Wendy said sheepishly. Charle hovered around her, "I'm glad I was able to help."

"Yeah! Now I can go and see Lev-"

"Oh no you don't!" Kinana cut in. She was a younger member whom they had taken in after the deal with Oracion Seis. She didn't know magic and hadn't shown an interest, so she mostly served and helped out around the guild, "When Porlyusica gets here we can steal Levy and Jet from the hospital, but if they're as hurt as you say, they're better left in their care for now."

"Right!" Charle sniffed, "Let Wendy rest!"

"Sorry," Droy mumbled, plopping onto his back on the bed.

"Look," Lisanna's voice was soft as she sat down on Droy's bed, "We know that you're worried about your teammates, we all are. But this could be a lot bigger than we think, and we need to keep our heads about us."

"I know," He mumbled sheepishly, sliding down further.

"Honestly, we're not scolding you!" Charle scolded, "We're just saying tha-" Charle took a sharp breath and her eyes widened.

_A young man stood in a swirling vortex of shadow, laughing maniacally. His form seemed to shift; light hair, eyes, skin tone, and clothes, to dark colours. His jaw elongated into a snout, his teeth turning into fangs_-

_Edward and Natsu fought each other, all fun gone. Determination and tears shone in their eyes. Natsu threw flames left and right, only to have them blocked or disintegrated by Edward. Ed threw wave after wave of attack at Natsu, but he only dodged, as light on his feet as fire itself._

_Darkness settled over Magnolia, casting shadows over the countless bodies that littered the ground, all far too familiar, when_-

_Then stood Charlene, taller than the Cardia Cathedral. She cried and stomped and fought a giant force, each striving to win, to survive_-

The visions were over as soon as they had come, as they often were. Except these visions were _horrible, _the worst she'd ever had.

"Charle?" Wendy asked, concern lacing her voice and face, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," She said, waving Wendy off, who seemed uncertain. The others in the room were uneasy as well, "I'm fine," She repeated, "Just a tickle in my throat is all. It's gone now."

No one really believed her, but they had a feeling that Charle wouldn't say any more, so they let it drop. For now.

Lisanna, Kinana, Wendy, and Droy tried to ease the moment with conversation. Charle tried to keep up, but she was frightened and preoccupied with the visions she had seen.

Ever since their visitors had arrived, she had felt uneasy. She kept her feelings to herself, not wanting to scare anyone. Her powers were still new and somewhat iffy, surely they couldn't be trusted one hundred percent.

But a mysterious and suspiciously powerful young girl and a band of equally powerful war heroes from another universe showing up at the same time? There was coincidence, and then there was fate.


End file.
